


When Stars Align

by storyteller94



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: 9 years past current canon, Little bit of slow burn, Multi, This is an Alpha/Beta/Omega AU, a lot of smut later on probably, also very slice of life, and pretty self induglent, minimal drama and action, so if that's not your jam, turn around now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:47:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24325270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storyteller94/pseuds/storyteller94
Summary: The turtles find themselves running into suitable and potential mates, no way that could flip their whole world upside down is there? A self indulgent A/B/O Au for the Rise universe set 9 years forward from the current canon placing the turtles in their early 20s. Characters will be written for the appropriate ages, which means they won't be the exact same as the show, so don't expect that.
Relationships: April O'Neil/Sunita (TMNT), Donatello (TMNT)/Original Character(s), Leonardo (TMNT)/Original Character(s), Michelangelo (TMNT)/Original Character(s), Raphael (TMNT)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 19





	1. Mystic Meetings

**Author's Note:**

> This is just my take on the A/B/O system and is by no means the go to, everyone writes it a little different. Also for reference the turtles ages are as follows: Raphael - 24, Leonardo and Donatello - 23, and Michelangelo - 22

When the boys had gotten April’s message about meeting her cousin they had been a little unsure, although there were more people these days who weren’t scared of mutants anymore. She had assured them that her cousin wouldn’t even think they were weird, something about her circumstances being even stranger than their own. Considering April was one of their familial pack bonds the four of them trusted she wouldn’t bring someone into their home that would end in disaster. Nevertheless, Raph was now ‘stinking’ up the lair in his scent, tinged with the twang of nervousness and anxiety. It had taken all three of his brothers to distract him enough to prevent him from nesting to settle his anxiety.

“Big guy come on,” Leo sighed, placing one hand on his older brother’s shoulder, “I know you’re nervous but maybe we try not to bombard April’s cousin in scent the second she walks through the door?”

“Gee Leo, I totally didn’t think of that. Didn’t cross my mind that it might be overwhelming to a new person we’re meeting for my scent to just be everywhere.” Raph growled, the nervousness present in the shakiness of his voice as well, “I’ll just stop being anxious.”

Leo opened his mouth, but closed it again, knowing he didn’t have a good response to that. Mikey stepped in, pulling both of them into a hug, “Well if she can’t handle Raph here in anxiety mode, she probably wouldn’t last very long anyways? So maybe it’s better this way!”

Donnie was about to interject at that point but they all heard the front door before he could add something logical and possibly not helpful into the conversation. Even from here April’s familiar smell of rain on pavement and barrel bonfire was noticeable, although a second, woody fire pit and cherry wood scent followed along with it. April smiled as the turtles came into her line of sight, pulling her cousin into view as well the other woman laughing as she stumbled a bit.

“Alright turtle team! This is my cousin, Venus. She’s visiting from out of town for the next couple of weeks and I figured I’d introduce her to the coolest peeps I know.” The New Yorker seemed pleased as punch with her introduction, turning to her cousin, “Venus, these are the guys! Raphael is the big sweetie in red. Leonardo and Donatello are the Terror Twins in blue and purple, respectively. And last but definitely not least, is Michelangelo in orange.”

Venus chuckled, “It’s nice to meet you guys! I’ve heard a lot about y’all from April, but it’s nice to know she wasn’t exactly pulling my leg about most of it.”

The positive reception had the brother’s scrutinizing this newcomer. She had the same deep brown skin tone as her cousin, her hair was kept in a type of… braid? They couldn’t tell and none of them had a lot of experience with different hairstyles. Her hair was also rich scarlet color, fading to a darker red-brown at the roots and partially pulled into a bun on top of her head. She wore a pair of black pants, with a fitted grey polo and a black blazer jacket, finished off with a nice pair of boots.

Leo and Mikey are the first two to get their heads on straight, the older of the two speaking up first, “We’ve also heard good things, good to know April was right about you being chill. Maybe you can convince our good bro Raph here to relax a bit.”

Donnie snorted in the background, while Raph choked on whatever it was he was about to say and his cheeks heated slightly. He managed to get his voice to work again after a moment, “I-i was just a little nervous a-about meeting someone new! Is that a crime Leo?”

As the squabble between brothers started, Venus looked over at April, shaking her head, “Have I ever told you how happy I am to be an only child? And that when we had family gatherings we never had to deal with the family fights?”

While they gave the guys a minute to work this out, Venus took the time to figure out the four of them just from observation. Two Alphas, one Beta and one Omega and it was easy to tell who was who just from the way both Donnie and Mikey had moved in front of Raph and were telling Leo off for taking the teasing too far. Which meant the sweet chocolate and vanilla scent had to be the big guy, she’d been able to smell it even before the door had opened. 

“Well now that we’re past the obligatory fight of the day,” Donnie started, “It is nice to meet someone who isn’t fish mouthing at us like they’ve never seen what some of the newspapers in New York print.”

Venus shook her head, “Considering I’m a shapeshifter I feel like it would be incredibly unfair of me to freak out on y’all. Besides don’t all of us weirdos need to stick together?”

She could smell the difference almost immediately from Raphael, the twang of nervousness and worry fading away and leaving behind just the subtle sweet scent. If it weren’t for the fact that they had all just met and both of his Alpha brothers were right there she might have been more flirtatious. Venus would pocket that thought for later, she did have two weeks to find the time to slip that in.

“Your cousin is a shapeshifter?” Leo asked, one eyebrow raised, “Your mate is a yokai, your cousin is a yokai and your best friends are mutants. I really wasn’t wrong about you being a weirdness magnet was I? How does that even work? Are you also secretly a yokai April?”

Mikey and Donnie both added their own scrutinizing looks at that last question, looking to their friend to answer. Raph, just let out an exasperated groan and placed one hand over his face. He was also trying not to think too hard over the new scent Venus had brought in with her. Maybe better if he didn’t get too involved in this conversation so he could focus.

“V’s mom married into the family, had Venus with my uncle and ever since then we’ve been cousins.” April explained, placing one hand on her hip, “Unless someone else has been hiding my sweet yokai powers from me I’m afraid I remain just a normal human.”

“So what do you think Venus, going to hang out while you’re here?” Mikey grinned, “We have a sweet space to chill and we are the coolest turtles in town?”

All four of the brothers struck ridiculous poses at that, leading both of the cousins to giggle a bit. Venus nodded, “Yeah I guess I can stick around and see what kind of trouble we can get up to. Better than waiting in my hotel for April to get off work.”

And just like that, the six of them made plans and went over schedules, moving forward events that would shake up the day to day for the turtles and for Venus. Things were gonna be different around here from now on.


	2. Hangout Hangups

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Venus hangs out with the guys and finds the turtles questioning her interest in their older brother.

“So, do you always go immediately into being sweet on the nearest Omega?” 

The question was said innocently enough but the fact that it came from Donatello told Venus she should probably be careful about how she answered it. Mikey was up front about her not hurting his brothers, even Leo had given her a warning about behaving appropriately, but Donatello was a different type of protective. Not to mention he would have no problem taking action if he thought she was going to hurt his brother.

“No, not usually.” The shifter started, turning to face the other Alpha, “But Raph is a sweetheart and easy to get along with. Not to mention that his scent has been a constant even when I’m not here.”

The turtle seemed to scrutinize her for a second, “So it’s genuine interest and not just playing around? That’s good, but just...mind your manners with him. We like you and all, but we like him more.”

And just like that Donnie turned around and left her to her business, Venus sinking back into the chair she’d been sitting in. Great, third visit and each time she’d been here one of the brothers had essentially given her the ‘you hurt my brother, i hurt you’ treatment. Leo and Mikey could still be heard playing their video game in the living room, which is probably all that kept Venus from hearing Raph walk into the area while she was lost in thought. 

“You okay there?” He asked, getting a small jump from the Alpha, “You seem a little jumpy.”

“Oh yeah Sweetpea, I’m good.” She grinned up at him, “Just your brothers being as over protective as they have been since my first visit.”

The dark flush across Raph’s cheeks was a sight Venus had gotten used to over the last few days and visits to the lair. Unfortunately it was always followed by his charmingly sweet scent being muddied with the tang of nervousness and anxiety. It seemed the large Omega had trouble dealing with Alphas outside of his pack. Venus frowned, trying to send a bit of comfort with her own scent, as the last thing she wanted to do was make Raph upset. 

“Y-yeah they can be like that,” He stuttered out, looking anywhere but at her, “Don’t let it bother you, they’ve been like this since we all presented. And they know how my anxiety is so they always get a little more protective.”

He started to move away from her at this point, knowing she was trying to just make him feel better but her scent was overwhelming to him at this time. He had no intentions of getting close to someone who wasn’t going to be around and he couldn’t imagine someone changing their whole life around just for a possible mate. Besides look at him, he was the exact opposite of what people expected an Omega and he knew most people mistook him for an Alpha. He wouldn't want to disappoint whoever he ended up being mates with, if he ever managed to find someone.

“W-well if you’re okay, I’m just gonna go and… uh relax.” He offered before leaving the room and Venus as quickly as he had come in. She watched him leave and sighed, poor guy was a sweetheart but was absolutely skittish around outside Alpha’s apparently. April had told her not to take it personally but it was hard when she was trying just to get to know the guy and at least be friends. It was hard when his scent was naturally enticing to her and set off every Alpha instinct she had, but she knew she had to take baby steps or she would scare him off permanently.

**********************

Venus finally gave in and went to watch Leo and Mikey in the living room, all three of them sitting around and chatting back and forth. Venus snorted at something they’d just done in the game, “Are you guys sure you’ve played this game before? That was kind of a rookie mistake wasn’t it?”

“Hey come on, you were distracting us with friendly conversation.” Leo groaned, “Man, now we have to start this level over.”

Mikey pouted but it was pretty obvious he found this whole thing kind of amusing as well. He could also see the smile that Leo was trying to keep under wraps as well, they may have gone into protective brother mode but Venus was pretty cool. She was laid back and never thought any of their habits were that weird like other people had. The light mood was only disrupted when they could see Raph gathering things throughout the lair. The Omega seemed to be nesting to cope with his anxiety, which was normal for the turtles to see but it wasn't technically common behavior for others of his rank.

“Does he nest a lot?” She asked, finally breaking the silence, “Like I know some omegas nest to cope with emotional distress but his seems to be every time his anxiety gets too high. Is this just a common thing for y’all to deal with?”

Mikey looks over at Leo, the two sharing a look before nodding, “Well it was always a thing for him to find someone or something to cuddle with when we were growing up, especially when he was anxious. Ever since presenting he’s always nested when the anxiety gets to be too much for him to deal with in other ways. I think he just learned the habit from what we did to help him and it got worse after his presentation due to the hormones and stuff."

“Yeah and it’s just one of those things we never really worried about because it didn’t interfere with our ability to operate as a team.” Leo added, looking over at Venus and raising a brow, “You’re really worried that he doesn’t like you huh?”

The shifter sighed, “I’m pretty easy to read huh? Yeah, I’m a little worried he doesn’t like me or that maybe I, like, scare him.”

Mikey placed one hand on her shoulder, nodding sagely in understanding, “I can understand why you might take it that way but it would be worrying if he wasn’t reacting a little like this. Raph doesn’t get anxious about things or people he doesn’t at least care a little bit about. Just give it time and give him the chance to get used to you.”

Venus smiled, bringing Mikey down for a noogie, the box turtle laughing as he tried to turn it around on her.

“Well I can be patient, I suppose.” She chuckled as Mikey finally managed to pull out of her hold and at the very least grab her up in a bear hug, “And thanks, ya know, for making me feel better.”

******************************

Later that night, all of the brothers went to check in on their oldest brother, finding him in the large nest on his floor. Donnie arched an eyebrow, Leo leaned against the doorway and Mikey actually kneeled down to get closer to Raph. He looked up and gave a low growl, the only acknowledgement he was likely to give them at all. He didn’t like talking when he was anxiety nesting, not out of fear of them not understanding but because it was just his instincts. It usually took the next day or two for him to come talk to them about whatever was on his mind.

However today they weren’t going to let him wallow, since the likely cause didn’t have that much time to be dealt with. If he didn’t talk about it then it definitely would end with him being upset about it.

“So Raph, are we gonna make this easy on ourselves or are you gonna have us pulling teeth to figure out what’s had you raiding all our rooms today?” Donatello started, “Or should I go ahead and threaten the sanctity of our usual pizza day to get you to talk?”

“What? Donnie isn’t that harsh?” Mikey pouted, looking up at his brother, “Besides we can probably figure it out without him telling us. I mean I’m pretty sure she left just a few hours ago.”

This earns another growl from the Omega and he starts to turn so that his back to them, which lets them know they’re on the right track.

“Yeah I mean you seemed okay up until that little back and forth you two had in the dining room.” Leo added, smirking, “Anyone with a nose could tell that she was trying to make you feel better though. Seems to be pretty worried over you too.”

The silence in response was also an answer, even if he thought it wasn’t. Donnie snorted, “Well if that’s the real reason I mean we can always just deal with her the old-”

“No! Donnie we do not threaten potential mates for our brother. We help him figure out how to talk to her.” Leo interrupted his twin, Mikey nodding in agreement behind him.

“Fine, but I’m keeping plan B around just in case she makes a misstep.” He replied, arms crossed, “Just you know, because I don’t know if we should trust her so much yet.”

For now they had their answer as to what had Raphael nesting and acting weird, which means once he’s up for talking they can tackle his inability to talk to Venus. Surely nothing else could possibly happen to distract them from that and everything will go according to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> little snippets of Venus getting to hang out, next chapter introduces a new character!


	3. Playing Protector

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo finds someone in need on patrol and helps her home, she comes looking for him to thank him.

Leo had taken the club and bar district for patrol that night, eager to just get to see the lively nightlife of New York. He’d had to play a round of rock, paper, scissors with Mikey but that had been an easy win honestly. Which is why he now jumped from rooftop to rooftop over the thumping of night club music and the sound of rowdy bar patrons. The enormous amount of scents he could do without but hey, at least with him being a Beta it wasn’t disorienting. 

Outside of the usual music, rowdiness and what appeared to be some overzealous partiers everything was quiet and normal here tonight. He turned to start heading back to their rendezvous point when the scent of someone off on their own made its way up to him. The smell of… maple trees, not like any maple tree he’d ever smelled but it was similar, and then the subtle sweet of cherry blossoms. It was easy enough to follow the rooftops until he found the source of the scent, just below him walking along the sidewalk was a young woman. 

Pixie cut blonde hair and big green eyes, she swayed a little as she walked and seemed to be trying to follow her phone’s gps. He frowned, was she trying to walk home by herself like that? He dropped down, following in the shadows of the buildings and alleyways, getting a better look at her. Now he could tell she was an Alpha, the richness of her scent much more noticeable now, along with the sharp points of her canines that were visible now that he was closer. She was also definitely more than a little tipsy, as was made obvious by the reek of alcohol on her as well. 

Despite knowing she could probably handle herself, not to mention it was unlikely anyone would probably try to mess with her, he still didn’t think it was a good idea to let her walk home alone. Leo sighed, well it had been a mostly easy patrol at least and this would be simple. She already had her address in the gps and all he had to do was convince the drunk woman to let him help her home. Right, no problem.

“Excuse me miss,” He started, easing himself into her line of vision and keeping his hands where she could see them, “But uh, you look like you could use some help getting wherever it is you’re headed. I’m not sure your phone deserves all the swearing you’ve been doing in it’s direction.” 

She jumped just slightly and squinted at him, “L-listen here… pal? I dunno who you think you are, but I… am perfectly capable of making it h-home. This stupid phone can’t tell me the right way t-to go. So I think I’ve got this.”

“Well of course you do! But I mean I can probably give you directions better than that thing, I’m a trustworthy looking guy right?” Leo replied, making his way over closer now, “You wanna at least let me do that? Promise I won’t do anything else to help.”

She frowned but looked back down at her phone and sighed, “Alright, f-fine. You help me figure out these directions and that’s it. I can still walk so just let me do that p-part on my own.”

“You got a deal cherrybomb.” he grinned, taking the phone from her and stepping up next to her, “Let’s get you home then yeah?” 

She just nodded and started to walk, swaying a little less now but nonetheless having to slow down every so often to regain her footing. The two of them made careful progress through the quiet streets, Leo being careful to avoid anyone else seeing him. The walk to her apartment gave him the chance to get a bit of a closer look at her and now that he was up close it was obvious she could handle herself. The only thing she couldn’t seem to do was follow the gps, but he thinks that’s more to do with the alcohol then her personally.

In an unfortunate turn of events however the lobby of cherry girl’s apartment is locked for the night, which prompts a string of swears and several inventive insults from her. He chuckled, “I don’t suppose you’d be opposed to being carried up the fire escape? I know you can walk but I’m not sure I trust you on the ladders or stairs.”

He could see she was about to argue but then she sighed and shrugged, “Sure, why the hell not. I already let the giant turtle walk me home, why not let him carry me up the fire escape as well.”

It took a few moments to get her comfortably settled on his back but the trip up to the correct window was easy enough afterwards. She kept her head tucked against his shoulder for most of it, trying to keep her breath steady and not think about how terrible this could go. Of course by the time he gets up to her window and gets it open he turns to ask her if she needs anymore help only to find she’s mostly passed out against him. 

“Of course,” He chuckled to himself, “Let’s get you to bed little cherry blossom.”

He navigated to her bedroom, only after he opened the wrong door to the study, and settled her into the bed. He walked back to the window, ready to leave but decided he’d take care of one more thing before he left her there. 

*****************

Izzy Durant woke up regretting every decision that had led her to this morning. Her head was killing her, she could tell she looked like a complete mess and she was covered in someone’s damn scent. She must have partied pretty hard at her coworkers engagement party last night because she had the strangest dream about being walked home by a mutant turtle. 

Except… except that the lingering scent was the scent from the dream. She’d read about the increasing amount of mutant sightings in the city over the years but honestly she hadn’t given it too much thought. Right now probably wasn’t a great time to try and think about that since her head was still pounding unbearably. She looked over to her nightstand to see what time it was and that was when she finally noticed the glass of water, the ibuprofen and the note. 

Izzy opted for the water and painkillers first and after a few moments she picked up the note, which also smelled of that same scent still clinging to her clothes. It reminded her of days on the beach, lemonade and saltwater with the sweet scent of grass just under that. She opened the note, snorting as she read the first line.

‘Hey cherrybomb figured you’d need these when you woke up in the morning. Maybe take it easy on the scotch next time huh? I might not be there to carry you up seven floors worth of fire escape. Leo~’

“So he really did call me that last night,” She grumbled, “Well can’t go looking for my knight in plastron if I look and feel like shit.” 

She would get cleaned up and eat and then she’d go looking for this Leo and see if at least she could thank him. Maybe she could sort out whether or not she’d just been seeing things last night.

*******************************

“You did what Leo?” Raph narrowed his eyes, “You just showed yourself to her and walked her home and that’s it? You didn’t think that might be a problem?”

“Listen Raph, no one else did see me, I made sure of that and she probably thinks that what she saw was part of her just being drunk as hell.” Leo shot back, arms crossed, “And besides I couldn’t just let her keep wandering around on her own, she couldn’t even follow her own gps or get up to her apartment on her own.”

Raph sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “Alright fine, you only got seen by her but if she makes trouble for us she’s your problem since you decided letting her see you wasn’t a big deal.”

“Deal. Now can I go?” The younger turtle frowned, “I do actually have things to do today.”

The Omega shooed him off and frowned after him, he knew Leo was smart enough to know that it could have ended badly but also that his brother was much more gallant than he’d ever admit out loud. If she came looking for him Raph only hoped it wouldn’t be more trouble for them.

******************************

The young woman hummed, it actually hadn’t taken much to get someone to point her in the right direction. Apparently there was a place around here that mutants and people involved with mutants hung around at. It couldn’t hurt to try at least and if she didn’t find anything then she could turn around and go back to her life and forget about what she saw.

Izzy hadn’t realized what kind of goose chase she was going to end up on looking for this guy. The first place had pointed her in the direction of another mutant business and they had also sent her on to another place. It continued like this until she ended up in front of a faded graffiti piece in an alleyway. She did the hand motions as she had been shown, trying not to let her mouth drop when the old brick wall gave way and she stepped into the oddest little restaurant. 

Izzy frowned, worried that she had once more ended up having to go to another place until the familiar scent from last night caught her attention. She looked across the tables until she stopped at the one where Leo and a second turtle were sitting. Well she wouldn’t have to go much farther at least, she started to walk towards the table.

Leo was about to take another bite of pizza when that same scent of japanese maple and cherry blossoms caught him off guard. He had enough time to see the blond Alpha on her way over to their table. He can’t say he hadn’t expected it, he had left a note with her on purpose. Mikey noticed his brother’s attention get dragged away from their lunch and he arched an eyebrow at him.

“So I see you can finally follow directions again.” He grinned, turning to face her in his seat, “You recovered pretty well, I thought you’d look a little worse for wear considering how deep in the drink you were last night.”

Izzy narrowed her eyes at him, “Yeah well I feel like most people get a little directionally challenged after a few glasses of liquor so I’ll take the loss there I guess. You know I came here to thank you because you didn’t have to go out of your way for me but now I think I’ll just turn around and go.” 

“Alright, alright.” He chuckled, “I’ll be nice now. Promise.”

“Thank you, for helping me home even though I was a stubborn brat about it.” She started, “And thanks for leaving the water and painkillers out too, I really needed those this morning.”

“Well I was happy to be of service,” Leo grinned, “But ya know I figured the big bad Alpha wouldn’t stoop so low to thank a Beta.”

Mikey snickered into his hand and Izzy narrowed her eyes, this guy was a troublemaker if she ever saw one and she should just turn around right now. Except it wasn’t like her to just let his guy act like this and get away with it. Besides, when was the last time someone interesting had dropped into her life like this.

“I guess you’ll have to put up with me until I can properly pay you back.” she threw back at him, “So move over stripes, you should go ahead and start getting used to me being around.”

As she moved into the booth with them, Leo could see the mischievous look his younger brother was giving him. This wasn’t how he’d expected this going but he supposed he could just see where this went, besides she was willing to play ball. Definitely no way this would come back to bite him in the ass.


	4. Cautious Cuddles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Venus and Raph spend some time together, but he doesn't know if he can trust her promises.

It’s been a week since Venus first met the turtles and a couple of days since Leo had brought Izzy down to the lair to meet everyone. Izzy’s meeting had gone over… well, Venus isn’t sure she could say it went well but it wasn’t as bad as anyone thought it would. Raph had been nervous but had settled a bit afterwards, although she’s pretty sure it helped to watch the back and forth between his brother and the blonde. It was always funny to see Leo go toe to toe with someone who could throw it back as good as they took it.

Of course the two of them were also part of the reason why Venus was currently helping Raph gather things for his nest and acting as a sort of calming presence for him. They had started a back and forth, which led to Leo and Izzy starting a competition and Raph had gone into anxiety nesting mode. Venus was currently following the large Omega back to his room and trying to send comfort to him with her scent. So far it seemed to be helping more than hurting, which was an improvement from where they had been. 

Once the two of them made it back to Raphael’s room, she waited as he put the last few things in it and got settled down. Once he was settled, Raph looked back over to where she was waiting and thought over the possible options here. She stays out of the nest but within distance for her presence to still be beneficial, she leaves him alone to nest (this was not something he was eager to think about), or he lets her into the nest. The third option allowed the greatest amount of relief from his anxiety but offered the highest chance of him getting too comfortable with the Alpha.

“You can… you can come into the nest Venus.” He said, much more quietly than she had ever heard him before, “This once, anyways.”

She moved slowly and respectfully, very careful about the placement and position of objects and cloth. The shifter noted how many plushies he seemed to like keeping in his nest and stored that away for later. Venus smiled at him, “Nice to see I’ve moved up from just getting to sit next to you during movie night.”

“Y-yeah well, don’t get used to it.” He frowned, although he did move closer to her, “I know you don’t live here and no one just up and moves their whole life for one person.”

He hated that it had to be said but it was important, because she had a life somewhere else that she would go back to. She would leave and she would forget all about him, about the lair and about anything that happened in these two weeks she was visiting. They would just be a blip on her radar and nothing more. Which was why, despite his instincts telling him she would be an ideal mate, he was trying to remain… rational during this time. His brothers had told him he should talk to Venus, who seemed pretty upset over his maintained distance both physically and emotionally. Which was fair, it’s not like it was her fault he was feeling this way and his instincts were trying to run the show.

“You don’t know… I might surprise you sweetpea.” She replied softly, placing one hand on his shoulder, “But I understand the hesitation, so just tell me to back off and I will.”

Raph leaned into her a little more, eventually settling for his head in her lap and letting his arms rest loosely around her. He sighed, “Sure, you might surprise me, but how do I know you won’t forget anything you’ve felt or said here once you’re back home. There’s no promise that things will work out and honestly I’m not going to put that expectation on you.”

There’s a bit of a heavy silence between them before he speaks up again, much softer than before, “Not to mention I don’t want to get attached and get my heart broken. I have a hard enough time with my emotions as it is.”

Ah, there it was. That was why he had been so hesitant before now and honestly, he wasn’t wrong. She hadn’t really been thinking about the fact that her flirting may have been making him feel this way. Would she drop everything to move here for him? Well before she’d come to New York and been dragged down here by april she might have said no. But now, after getting to know him a little, her instincts practically gave her the answer. She would do what it took to get back here and she would have to hope that that would prove she was willing to try at least.

Neither of them spoke after that, too scared to break the small amount of peace they’d found, even if it was very tentative at the moment. Despite being able to hear the loud and aggressive back and forth between Leonardo and Izzy, the rest of the night was calm for the two of them.

**********************

Sunita grinned as she watched her mate’s cousin browse the plushies on the shelf, scrutinizing the fluff filled animals to ensure she picked out one that would be perfect for the oldest of the turtles. April was at work and Venus had been desperate for someone to help her pick out something to give Raphael. The slime yokai was invested at this point really, she’d had the feeling that Venus would like the city and it’s peculiar inhabitants more than expected. 

Eventually the Alpha settled on the largest teddy bear the store had to offer, eagerly handing the money over to the clerk at the register and carrying it on her back out of the store. 

“Soooo are you going to give him the bear right now?” Sunita asked, “Or are you going to give it to him just before you leave as a surprise?”

Venus thought about it, before shaking her head, “I’ll probably keep it with me for a couple days to get my scent on it and then I’ll give it to him. I was kind of thinking I might ask for something that smells like him too, that way I definitely don’t forget him. Do you think that’s too much?”

The Omega laughed, “I mean I wouldn’t ask in front of his brothers but I think it might help him really feel like you mean it when you say you’re gonna come back to him. It’s a good step forward if nothing else!”

“I only wouldn’t ask in front of his brothers for his sake.” Venus chuckled, “Mikey and Leo are definitely cool with me and if nothing else there’s mutual respect between me and Donnie.”

The two continued just some light banter on the rest of their walk and really Venus isn’t just coming back for Raphael, although he’s a big part of the reasoning, but also because she had found some real camaraderie with everyone else too. She liked the college she worked at and she had a few friends in town but she hadn’t ever really felt as at home as she had here in the last week and a half.

**************************

The Alpha shifted from foot to foot as the three turtles in front of her looked from her to the overly large teddy bear in her arms. It wasn’t until Leo and Mikey were handing over money to Donnie that she realized what was going on.

“Did you guys bet on whether or not I would give Raph a present before I left?” Venus asked, arching an eyebrow and looking over the three of them. Donnie snorted, “No. We bet on what the present would be. Anyone with eyes could tell you were going to get him one, it was just a matter of what it would be. You’re smarter than you look and I figured you’d get him something that would be useful and sentimental.”

She let out a sigh and then laughed, because of course they had known and of course she would over think their reactions. 

“So are y’all going to let me by so I can actually give him the present now?” She asked, “Or is this where I have to fight to prove myself worthy?”

This got all three brothers to laugh, Leo pulling it together after a bit, “No dude, listen we just want him to stop acting like you leaving is the end of the world. We haven’t been able to get him to cheer up at all.”

They let her through, still laughing a bit and joking about what she had said and she just shook her head. The turtles were a weird bunch but they were the best kind of weird and really she was dreading even just the few weeks she might be away. It didn’t take long to find her way to Raph’s room and she could see he wasn’t nesting but he was definitely pouting in here.

“So this is where you’re hiding Big Red,” Venus smiled softly, “How am I supposed to give you this present if I can’t find you?”

He had been able to tell she was there, her scent always stuck out very distinctly for him but he didn’t look up until she spoke. Which of course was when he noticed the huge teddy bear she was holding out to him now.

“That’s for me?” He asked tentatively, “You brought me a present. Even though you’re leaving? What’s the catch?”

She smiled, “Well it’s not really a catch I guess but I was hoping you’d have something with your scent that I could take with me. That way there’s no chance I could forget you. Besides it means I have to come back to get you to scent it again.”

Venus moved forward and set the bear next to Raph before moving to stand in front of him. She very gently placed a hand on either of his cheeks, “So are you going to give me something before I leave? Doesn’t have to be fancy.”

He leaned into her hands and thought, was there something he could give her? Something that would have enough of his scent and would last until she came back? ‘If she comes back.’ says a voice in the back of his head, one he knows too well is his anxiety speaking.

“I… y-yeah you could take one of my usual nesting plushies.” He replied back, trying not to let his voice shake too much, “You’d probably like the dragon one a lot and it’s red…”

Venus grinned, “Then it’s settled, a plushie for a plushie and when I get back we can rescent everything. I’ll leave my number too, there are plenty of ways to keep me from forgetting you.”

The two stayed in companionable silence for the rest of the evening, only talking a bit here and there to talk about staying in contact or how long it might take before she could be back in the city. For once Raph found it relatively easy to ignore the voice of anxiety in the back of his brain. Hopefully his new present and his brothers would help him deal with it while Venus was gone.


	5. So Longs and Sparring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Venus heads back home to try and get set up for a job transfer; meanwhile a training session between Leo and Izzy gets heated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know there's only a few of you keeping up right now but it means so much to see the comments, bookmarks and kudos! I'm so happy that y'all are enjoying this story with me!

Venus sighed as he packed the last of his things back into his duffle bag, going around and double checking that he had everything packed up. The only thing he hadn’t put into the bag was the plush dragon that Raphael had given him, which was still sitting on the edge of the bed. He picked it up and hugged it close to his chest, he would be heading straight to the airport today to fly back and that meant that he had already said his goodbyes to the turtles for now. 

Raph had been pretty antsy and they had shared their goodbye in his room, where he had already started anxiety nesting in an effort to not feel so bad about Venus leaving. Of course at this point Venus knew he would have to work hard to continue to prove that he meant what he said about coming back. He had promised the Omega that he would text regularly and try to call when he could, but he could tell Raph wouldn’t believe it until it happened.

Venus finally placed the plushie in the duffle and then gathered his bags to head downstairs where April and Sunita were waiting for him. The ride to the airport was filled with quiet conversation between the three, discussing possible apartment locations and which schools had better reputations for working at. Being a TA was hard enough, he didn’t want to end up at a school that was just going to make his life even more difficult.

After a few hugs and goodbyes, the shifter headed into the airport and through security. Venus had never liked airports but it seemed even worse because he didn’t want to leave this time. Most of the people he had talked to said it could be up to two or three weeks, at the longest, before the transfer went through and he could move back. It felt like a long time but hopefully it would pass by quickly and he could keep busy, not to mention they had all traded numbers so the option to call or text was available.

As the plane was boarded, he found his seat and watched as New York disappeared from beneath, already counting the days until he would be back.

**********************************

“I don’t think it’s a good idea if you two spar,” Raph started, already knowing that the overly competitive Beta and Alpha weren’t going to listen, “Your little competitions already get out of hand as is.”

Leo opened his mouth to argue but Izzy spoke up first, “It’s not a spar, I asked Blueberry here to show me some more advanced self defense and hand to hand moves, that’s it. I promise Raphael no fighting against each other this time, just teaching.”

“That is the worst nickname,” Leo groaned, “And she’s right, it’s just me teaching her a few things. Nothing could possibly go wrong.”

Donnie rolled his eyes, “Isn’t that what you said about the knife throwing contest you two had the other day and the pull up contest before that? You always say nothing could go wrong and then the two of you get so into your little competition you stink the entire lair up and end up arguing for hours about who won.”

“Don isn’t wrong,” Mikey added, “You two can get a little… heated about this stuff.”

Both Leo and Izzy looked at each other, was it really that bad? The blonde sighed and put her hands up in defeat, “Okay, fine. We will try to chill out today, you can even referee for us if you think we’re getting out of hand.”

Well, that was probably the best compromise they were going to get out of this situation but Raph still thought it was a terrible idea. He and the other two shrugged, “Fine, but if we have to call it off that’s that for today. No arguing after the fact.”

Both of them nodded, before eagerly turning and making their way down to where Leo had set up the little training area. There seemed to be a little back and forth before Leo started to show Izzy a couple of moves, stopping to explain things as he went. Then he would have her copy the movement and as she did it he would stop and correct things. This process repeated several times and Raph thought for just a second, maybe they would get through this little exercise without any issues.

Of course just moments after he thought that, Izzy’s voice broke any train of thought he was having.

“What the hell Stripes!” she practically snarled as she turned on him, “If this was just an excuse to cop a feel-”

“You’re positioning was still off, I was just trying to help.” He interrupted, although knowing Leo he was probably trying to push her buttons, “I swear that’s it. Really.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, but settled back down, “Just… just watch where you’re putting your hands Stripes, you might give a lady the wrong impression.”

The two of them get back into the groove of things again, Leo showing her the move and her copying it with him correcting as she goes through the movements. This led to him getting her to try and pull off the moves against him. Which went well enough until he started to show off and wasn’t even letting her get close to him. Izzy practically snarled as she threw herself at him again in an attempt to land one of the moves and Leo didn’t manage to calculate for an angry Alpha.

The two of them crashed into each other and rolled across the training area floor, coming to a stop after a few seconds. Which left Izzy on top of Leonardo, straddling his hips and looking down at him in surprise. The turtle took a moment to realize the position he was in, “A-alright Cherrybomb I was poking fun and I deserved that but how about you get up now?”

The Alpha’s surprise turned to smugness, her lips turning up into a smirk, “Why don’t you make me Mr. Showoff. That should be easy enough shouldn’t it?”

“For me? Super easy.” He said and then attempted to move her, except as he did she tensed her legs and used her center of gravity to keep him from being able to move her. Izzy couldn’t help how wide her grin went when he realized what she had done, shoving him back onto the ground with one hand. 

“Well Stripes, I’m waiting. Move me.” she challenged again, although this time there was the air of Alpha willpower behind it. Her scent was stronger now, even Leo had to admit it was a little overwhelming in this moment. She had overpowered him without even actually having to do much, which means while she had a hard time landing a hit she would only need to land the one in order to get the upper hand. This particular little scenario was also… well, it was exciting. He wasn’t going to admit it out loud but the fact that he couldn’t move her and the fact that she had him trapped with just her legs… that was pretty hot. 

He opened his mouth to retort, but Raph spoke up first, “No, no more of this today. I should have known Leo would pull something like this. He’s just trying to get under your skin Iz, you gotta stop letting him play you like a fiddle.”

She sighed, losing the smirk before looking up, “I know, I know. It’s just so easy when his face looks so smug. Can’t help but wanna wipe that look off his face.”

“Listen we get it, really.” Donatello added in, “But all you're really doing is playing into his game and feeding his ego. It’ll be better for everyone if you ignore him trying to poke the bear.”

She pushed herself off the ground, her weight coming off of Leonardo and walked towards the kitchen with Mikey and Raph. He laid there for a moment before the sound of someone clearing their throat brought him back out of his thoughts. He looked up to see his twin still standing next to him, one eyebrow arched and Leo could feel a bit of heat creep up his neck. If anyone had caught the context in that little back and forth it was Donatello, he was unnaturally good at sussing out things like that.

“So, do you wanna talk about it?” The purple clad turtle asked, “Or should I pretend I didn’t notice any of the body language or subtle changes in scent between the two of you?”

Leo sighed as he pushed himself up and off the ground, “I have no idea what you’re talking about Donald, that was just a miscalculation and a little bit of an awkward muss up. Nothing to talk about.”

And with that he walked past his brother, moving towards the kitchen as well. Donnie sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and hoping that maybe Leo stops trying not to admit that there is some sort of chemistry between himself and Izzy. He would have been willing to say it was coincidence but it was nonstop with these two ever since Leo had walked her home that night. Anyone else might have thought it was as simple as Leo said, but he knew his brother and he knew that Leo was going to avoid the problem until it blew up in his face. And it would, but it was just a matter of time before Leo pushed Izzy’s buttons the wrong way. 

He had to admit the usual routine and quiet of their lives had all but changed recently and it wasn’t bad of course, but between Raph and Leo now there had been a disruption in the norm. Donatello was hoping everything would settle down soon, besides what else could possibly happen?


	6. Entangling Encounters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In an attempt to help their brother deal with Venus's absence, the turtles head down to the Hidden City.

The brothers chatted idly amongst each other as they walked through the streets of the Hidden City, mostly in an attempt to keep Raph’s mind off the recent separation from their newfound friend, Venus. The big guy was taking it kind of hard, which made sense considering there was… something there. So Mikey, Leo and Donnie decided a trip down to the mystic city would be a good distraction. Plenty of food carts to check out, trinket stores to peruse and other things they could use keep their brother’s spirits up. 

“So Raph, do you feel a little better? Have we at least given you a good distraction for the moment?” the youngest asked, “Because we could totally find something more distracting to do if you need us to.”

“No, this is good Mikey. It’s nice to just hangout with the four of us again for a little bit.” Raphael smiled, “Nothing against the new people in our life but it’s been a lot and I already don’t always handle our normal stuff very well.”

Leo placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder, “Change is hard bro, but that’s why we’re doing this tonight. Just a usual night out on the town night for us, nothing weird or new to distract us.”

Nods of agreement from Mikey and Donnie as Leo spoke helped add to the fact the nice feel of family time for the evening. His brother’s hadn’t had to go to all the trouble of setting up tonight but it was nice, especially since between Venus leaving and the weird tension Izzy always brought with her, Raph was having a hard time with his anxiety and nesting habits. So this little bit of normalcy, watching Mikey and Leo see who could eat street food the fastest and watching Donnie get excited over whichever mystic trinket he could already tell would be useful in a piece of tech later, it was nice. 

“Hey guys the bazaar looks like it’s got some new stalls we haven’t seen before,” Mikey grinned, his excited curiosity was contagious, “We should go check it out!”

The youngest turtle was already pulling them along, not giving anyone the chance to say that maybe they should still be cautious. They may have learned how to deal with the yokai and other creatures down here but it was always best to exercise as much caution as possible. Once they were in the bazaar proper the whole group slowed down and took a good look around. There were several food vendors in the near vicinity, a couple of clothing and rug stands, a handful of fine cigar and liquor stalls and a couple of small trinket stalls. 

The smell of food and cigar smoke was almost completely overwhelming here in the bazaar, the brothers all noted but for two of them there was an underlying scent that almost seemed to call to them. At the same time both Donnie and Mikey turned to their brothers and asked, “Do you guys smell that?”

“Whoa, you smell that… I think it’s roses and raspberries, too Donnie?” The box turtle asked, “What about you guys?” 

Leo and Raph looked at each other, before looking at their brothers, “I’m pretty sure all we’re smelling is cigars and street food.”

Donnie snorted, “Really? Because the scent of sweet spice and… I’m not sure, I think it’s a fruit smell? It’s distinct and I’m surprised you can’t smell it.”

The two Alphas turned and started to bicker about the smell, although it was clear to their brothers they were picking up completely different scents. Raph looked over to his younger brother and frowned, “You don’t think we should worry about this do you?”

“I’ll be worried if these two decide to let their instincts take over and sniff out the source of the smell. I can’t imagine anyone down here is going to take to strangers getting in their personal space like that.” Leo said, “But let’s see if we can get them back on track first.”

Just as they were about to do so, the sound of someone slamming a fist into a wall caught all of their attention. As they turned to find the sound the brother’s noticed two large yokai, one of them clearly placing himself over the small figure they had cornered against a food stall. They moved a little closer, although everyone in the bazaar seemed to be paying attention to this little scuffle now, they got a better look at the smaller figure. The skink lizard had big orange eyes and mostly white scales, with the exception of a handful of grey and black scales around the eyes and along the back of the neck. 

“L-listen, I already told you,” The lizard started, flinching when the large yokai pressed further into his personal space, “I’m not interested and I h-have to get back to work…”

The yokai grinned, “Oh I heard you but I know that as an Alpha if I just push hard enough you’ll have to submit and I don’t take no for an answer sweet thing.” 

It was obvious to everyone in the crowd now that this guy and his (most likely Alpha) friend were attempting to harass this poor Omega into something he clearly didn’t want. Raph was already starting to push people out of the way so that he and his brothers could intervene before things got too heated, someone else had already made their way to do so. The Alpha reeled back when the second smaller figure moved onto the scene, knocking him in the shin with the cylindrical metal case they’d been carrying. He snarled, but this had already given the lizard mutant time to move behind the new individual. 

The new yokai placed a hand on their hip, pale golden eyes narrowed in the direction of the Alphas. They brushed dark plum hair to the side, revealing for just a moment the small upward curved horns. Soft grey skin, with soft flushes of aquamarine along their cheeks and on the tip of their nose, sharply arched eyebrows pulled in to further show their irritation with the two yokai in front of them. Their tail, a thin appendage ending with an aquamarine, heart shaped tip, whipped back and forth behind them as they made themself the barrier for the mutant. 

“I don’t think you boys heard him, but he’s not interested which means you two blowhards need to scram.” they shook the metal case in front of them, “Unless you want me to knock you another good one with this. I’d be happy to oblige you.”

The same one who had been talking to the lizard a second ago moved forward again, “Go ahead, but I can smell it on you too. You should be shaking every bit as much as him.”

They arched one eyebrow and brought the case up to push his face back, “I’m afraid I don’t play well with others, especially when they’re the kind of jackass you are. My offer to hit you again still stands however.”

The lizard, who was gripping the back of their shirt as he hid behind them, “A-are you sure you should be talking to him like that? Pissing off an Alpha is a really bad idea and-”

“Yeah, if I gave a shit about what some puffed up, pompous Alpha thought I wouldn’t be standing here.” the yokai snorted, lips turning up into a smirk, “Not to mention the only kind of alpha who treats Omegas like this guy does is because he feels the need to compensate for his tiny ego.”

The Alpha snarled and reared back, ready to strike the smaller yokai but the turtles finally made it far enough through the crowd to interrupt the little back and forth. Raph placing himself in front of the other two Omegas, Leo and Donnie placing themselves directly in front of the larger yokais, with Mikey just behind them. 

“I hate to say it man, but you definitely seem like the jerk in this little situation.” Leo started, leaning on his sword, “I gotta say if you wanna keep toeing the line here I’d be more than happy to kick your ass.”

“Yeah man, pretty uncool to try and force yourself onto someone who clearly isn’t into it.” Mikey added, casually spinning his manriki, “Can’t really let that kind of behaviour slide.”

The two yokai looked at each other and then back at the four turtles who had placed themselves in the way. The larger of two snorted, “Fine, little broodmare isn’t worth all the trouble anyways. Too small and sniveling.”

As the two brutes walked off, the turtles turned to check on the two they stepped in to help, finding the two Omegas still behind Raph. The horned yokai smiled, “Thanks for stepping up to bat there, those guys weren’t really taking the hint. I was worried that was going to get worse instead of better.”

“It was no problem, we were happy to help.” Mikey said, although he stopped when he realized the scent he’d noticed earlier was even stronger now. Leo arched an eyebrow, looking up at his older brother because Donnie also seemed to have zoned out. Just as Raph was about to say something, the lizard mutant squeaked out a very quick thank you and then ran off, dippin and out of the crowd.

“Wait, you’re going…” they sighed and turned to the turtles, “Sorry I’d love to sit here and get like an autograph, but that kid doesn’t know his way around the city yet. He’s bound to run into someone else who wants to hassle him and unfortunately you boys can’t be everywhere to swoop in and save the day.”

The yokai offered the turtles a two fingered salute, slinging the metal case over their shoulder before taking off after the lizard mutant through the crowd. The four of them watched as the plum ponytail disappeared in the crowd of people, well Leo and Raph did as their other two brothers were still standing there eyes wide and jaws slightly slack. Leo waved his hand in front of his twin's face and Raph did the same with Mikey, “Hey are you guys okay? I know those two were pretty cute but-”

The immediate growls that this statement earns Leo he put his hands up, “Alright, alright I’m sorry!”

Raph placed a hand on each of their brothers shoulders, “Maybe we should head back to the lair for now guys? You two can clear your heads.” 

Mikey turns to him, “We should go after him, what if another Alpha tries to harass him like that?”

“Him? We should go after that purple haired divine deva,” Donnie snorted, “They handled those weak Alphas with style.”

The two Alpha turtles started to growl at each other and before a real fight could start Raph held back Donnie and Leo grabbed Mikey, keeping the two separated. Raph sighed, “We need to get these two out of here. If they’re still like this after we get them calmed down then we can entertain looking for people we don’t know.”

As the two struggled with escorting their brothers out of the city and back home, the idea that things were only going to change even more from this point on hit both of them. There wasn’t any escaping it and they would just have to figure it out as they went at this point.


	7. Looking for a Lizard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The turtles get to looking for the two Omegas from the night before, leading to a fun little adventure back to the Hidden City.

It had taken a few hours for both of the Alpha turtles to calm down from the scents and pheromones causing the small bout of irritation and aggression. Once they were back in the lair the two of them had started to calm down much quicker than when they were still in the city. Both of them were still pretty adamant about looking for the two Omegas, which Leo and Raph agreed to finally. The stipulation of course is that they rested first before heading back into the hidden city, which Donnie and Mikey agreed to but it was obvious they didn’t like it.

“Okay so you two are sure you can at least sniff one of them out? If we can find one we might be able to find the other one easier.” Raph said looking at his brothers as they walked back down to the mystic city, “There’s a lot of yokai and mutants down here, which means we may not find them very easily.”

“The scents are still very… present for us,” Donatello started, “Besides we all remember what the two of them look like and that should help just in case we can’t ‘sniff’ them out as you so eloquently put.”

Raph sighed, “Well how else should I say it, that is what the two fo you are trying to do. Look, the sooner we get through this maybe the two of you will stop acting like everything we say to you is a huge offense to your being.”

Just as the two of them were about to butt heads Leo stepped in, “Hey this isn’t going to help us find anyone so why don’t you chill out Donald. We’re here helping and we don’t have to be so try not to be such a dick about it. Raph, these two have frustratingly little control over how out of whack their instincts are right now, so don’t fight with them.”

With that the turtles continued their trek into the city, deciding they would start their search at the bazaar, where they saw the two the night before. Donnie and Mikey both started by trying to find any remnants of scent left over from the night before, although Mikey seemed to be the only one who could pick up anything. Once the youngest had picked up the faint trail he was off and the other three had to move pretty quick to keep up with him. The trail led them away from the bazaar and down several streets to another food stall heavy area. They got about halfway down this road before Mikey started to lose the scent trail, going to their back up plan and asking the locals if they had seen the mostly white scaled lizard mutant.

“Yeah, he was pretty small and mostly white with orange eyes,” Leo explained to one of the vendors, “Seemed pretty skittish too. Sound familiar?”

The lady running the stall seemed to think for a minute, eyeing Leo suspiciously before giving him a small nod, “Yeah, he’s new down here. Just started working at the bakery a few streets down. You’re right though, seems sweet but he spooks very easily.”

Leonardo rounded his brothers up once she gave him proper directions, letting them in on what he had found out. Once they were all clear on the information they took off towards the bakery, hoping to find the lizard they were looking for finally. It was getting on to be just past noon as they finally made it to the proper street, the bakery’s sign visible from where they were now. Mikey started to pick up speed, his excitement getting the better of him and his brothers speeding up to keep up with him and not get separated. 

The guy at the counter looked up as they walked in and gave them a small smile, “Welcome to Binny’s Bakery, what can we do for you gentlemen? Could I interest any of you in a fresh tart?”

Raph placed a hand over Mikey’s mouth before replying, “We’re looking for someone actually and we heard he worked here. We stepped in last night when he was getting harassed and just wanted to make sure he was okay.”

“Oh you mean Daisy? Little guy did seem pretty freaked out when Nyx brought him back last night.” the yokai said, “He’s out back taking his break, just be careful because he is skittish and probably still a little on edge from last night, even if y’all were helping him out.”

Raph nodded his thanks, motioning for Leo and Donnie to wait there while he and Mikey went out back. As they came out the door to the little break area the scent Mikey had talked about became pretty obvious to Raph finally. It smelled like a rosy tea and raspberries, so he could see how that kind of scent would catch his younger brother’s attention. Speaking of, Michelangelo had frozen up again just like he had last night and was staring at the lizard across the way who hadn’t quite noticed them yet.

Raph cleared his throat, startling the other mutant just a bit but he seemed to at least relax a bit as he realized who they were. Daisy was still a little tense but he recognized these two had helped him and Nyx out last night so he would give them a chance. 

“So… this is going to sound weird, but my brother here wanted to come talk to you.” Raph started, gesturing to Mikey, who seemed to have at least come back to the moment, “He kinda went bonkers when he smelled your scent last night.” 

“S-so what?” Daisy asked, “does he expect something from me?”

Mikey finally shook off his funk, “What? No! I mean, no I’m not like those jerks from last night. I just want to talk and ask if you’ll come hang out, you know, if you want to.”

The lizard raised one brow, because no one had ever been so polite towards him, especially not an Alpha. He took a moment, taking in the turtle in front of him and deciding it couldn’t hurt anything to at least spend some time together. Besides he wasn’t planning on staying for long so if anything went sideways he could just skip town sooner than earlier. 

“Okay… I will come hang out but I make no promises to stick around longer than planned.” He stated, “and thanks for last night. Nyx is willful and capable but I don’t think they could have put those jerks back in line by themself.”

Mikey grinned, just happy with the answer he got, but Raph was more interested in the last thing that Daisy said.

“Wait, you know the yokai who helped you out last night? Could you help us find them?” Raph asked eagerly, “Our other brother is being every bit as weird as Mikey but about your friend.”

This actually got a small chuckle from the lizard, “Oooh boy, I hope your brother can handle dealing with them, because they’re a handful even for an Omega.”

***************************

As Daisy led them further towards the center of the city they explained that Nyx had helped them out when they first got into the area.

“I didn’t think it was possible to swear in so many different languages or for someone to look so thoroughly embarrassed by an Omega.” He chuckled, “They’ve just kind of looked out for me since then. Considering they know a lot of the others down here it’s been helpful.”

Leo sighed, “How is it that they haven't gotten themselves into serious trouble? Like it’s not super common but insubordinate Omegas don’t usually do well for themselves do they?”

“It depends on who they take as a mate.” Raph interjected, “Besides there are also Alphas that get run over by other ranks because they aren’t as aggressive or dominant. Isn’t it rude to make assumptions about people anyways?”

Donnie narrowed his eyes at Leo, “It is rude, especially given the circumstances.”

“What Donald are you mad that I’m making fun of your potential mate material?” Leo joked, “what are you gonna- ooh!”

Leo barely dodged the punch Donnie threw and immediately put his hands up, “Okay! Okay, I’m sorry! Geeze.”

The Alpha growled but backed off and settled back into step, both Raph and Mikey shook their heads. Daisy had moved closer to Mikey when he could tell the other Alpha was upset but straightened himself back out. 

“Anyways… we’re almost to the shop that Nyx’s family runs.” Daisy explained, “They’re the go to place if you’re looking for suppressants made for mutants and yokais, or… uh… well other medicinal needs you and your mate might need.”

The red flush that crept up the lizard’s neck and across his cheeks said enough about what that second part meant and the fluster was contagious as Raph also turned a bit red. Leo snorted, it was ridiculous how the guy hadn’t even said what it was and both Daisy and Raph looked like tomatoes. And as if the universe was sparing them further embarrassment, the shop they were looking for was just down the way and now in sight.

“Well would you look at that? Now we can get the stick out of Donnie’s ass.” the Beta grinned, “And maybe we can stop being at each other’s throats.”

Daisy chuckled before leading the four turtles inside, “That would be the hope wouldn’t it?”

As the group stepped inside, another grey skinned yokai stood at the counter, his short and slightly messy plum hair and golden eyes telling them exactly who he was. 

“Hello Mr. Divina, Nyx wouldn’t happen to be home would they?” Daisy asked cheerily, “These lot are the ones who stepped in to help us out last night and they just wanted to check in with both of us.”

The man at the counter smiled, “Oh yeah, their upstairs in the studio. You all can just head on up there if you like, just mind where you put your hands. I think Nyx was working on a new piece.”

Daisy just nodded and gestured for the guys to follow him up the stairs, leading the way up to Nyx’s art studio. The smell of paint, canvas and paper permeated the whole upper floor and the walls were covered in the paintings and drawings that Nyx had done. The turtles all looked around curiously, Donnie finally speaking up, “So Nyx is… an artist? These paintings don’t feel normal but nothing about them seems out of the ordinary either.”

“Well they are a yokai, so they have mystic capabilities and theirs is that they can infuse the art they make with emotion and I guess, like an understanding of how they felt when they made the painting. It makes them very popular with customers and commissioners.” the lizard mutant explained as they walked down the hall, “Which is also why their dad said to mind where you put your hands, touching the paint they’re using before it’s on a canvas has been known to be an unpleasant experience.”

He knocked on the door to the studio and from the other side of the door came the sounds of someone moving towards the door and several things falling to the ground. 

“I’m coming!” they called out, “It’s just that the tarp is trying to kill me before I can get to the door.”

The artist opened the door and smiled, “Daisy! And you guys from last night! This is a surprise, you never come looking for me DeeDee.”

The yokai leaned against the doorway and looked over all four turtles, seeming to take everything in before looking back to Daisy. 

“So what exactly does bring you all the way here? I know you didn’t come all the way here just to check on little old me?” they said, “So why are y’all here in my little neck of the woods?”

Leo pushed Donatello forward at that, “Yeah Don what are we doing here?”

“Ah well,” the purple clad turtle cleared his throat, “We… I just wanted to see if you’d be interested in hanging out sometime. You know just a friendly get together.”

Raph put his hand over his face because that was terrible, Mikey and Leo were trying not to laugh and Daisy just looked to see what Nyx’s reaction was. Just like the lizard expected, they were too dense to have caught the meaning there but they looked excited nonetheless. 

“Well I’ve never been one to turn down new opportunities so sure, I’ll come hang out.” Nyx nodded, “Besides if DeeDee is here that means they probably also agreed to hang out so you guys can’t be terrible.”

They turned back into the room and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen, quickly scribbling their phone number on it and handing them both to Daisy for him to do the same. The paper was then handed to the turtles and Nyx added, “Now you guys can get a hold of us whenever you want, no promise we will always answer of course.”

Donnie grinned because it was a better answer than he had hoped for and everyone else seemed pleased enough that they had found both of the Omegas, which meant that their Alpha brothers would hopefully relax a little more now. In just a few weeks everything had been turned upside down for them, not in a bad way but there was definitely no going back to their old normal now.


	8. Moments Between

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just some moments of everyone having some down time and getting to know one another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm all out of prepared chapters and am now writing as we go! It'll probably be a couple days or so between updates from this point forward!

Nyx grinned, “So you’re telling me that you’re dad is an ex-movie star and your other dad, although I guess dad isn’t accurate, is the reason you four even exist?”

“More or less,” Donnie replied, “I could give you the more lengthy and scientific explanation later, after the tour of the lair.”

Leo mocked his twin as they led both Nyx and Daisy through the sewers and towards their home, not that Donatello was paying attention. The Alpha was much more focused on his potential mate, already attempting to impress them. Mikey was just attempting to get Daisy to relax enough to let him walk next to the lizard and Raph was giving him a face that said he should watch it.

“I can’t promise I’ll be able to follow along with everything but I would like to hear it.” the yokai replied, “Maybe I’ll learn something!”

Raph grinned, “Oh trust me, he won’t say it, but just the fact that you’re willing to sit and listen is enough for Don. He’s easier to please than he lets on.”

The two Omegas laughed, while Donatello attempted to rebuff what his brother had just said. Daisy was glad Nyx was already having fun, not that he didn’t want to, but he was very nervous around this new and very boisterous group of people. The turtles were very much the opposite of himself, with the exception of Raphael who seemed to have as many anxious habits as he did.

“You doing okay?” Michelangelo asked, pulling him from his thoughts, “We aren’t going to be like those other people you’ve had to deal with. Promise!”

The Omega could tell the Alpha was trying to be comforting, his scent already starting to become a little more noticeable. Which worked pretty well considering that Mikey smelled like fresh bread, chimney smoke and cedar wood; it reminded Daisy of being in the bakery which almost immediately helped him relax.

“I’m okay, just not used to… all this,” the lizard replied, gesturing to their little group, “I’m usually moving from place to place pretty often so I don’t have time to settle in or make friends. Nyx didn’t really give me a choice, but they’re hard enough to say no to as it is.”

“Baby steps, right? Just say something if you’re uncomfortable so we can do something about it.” Mikey said, “I bet we’ll have you warmed up to the idea of being friends really quick.”

He’d give the Alpha points for optimism, although he wasn’t going to say one way or the other whether he would stick around. He’d had many people try to convince him to stay, but he’d been burned before so he was always careful.

*******************************

After the tour of the lair everyone split up, Leo was apparently going out to meet Izzy for lunch at Hueso’s, Mikey already had plans to watch Food Network with Daisy and Raph had headed for his room once everyone seemed settled in. Which had left Donatello with Nyx, standing awkwardly in the small common area in the middle of their rooms.

“So, do we have time for that scientific explanation,” They started, “Or do you like standing around awkwardly normally?”

Donnie cleared his throat, “Ah no, not normally. I would be happy to give you that explanation now though!”

He led them over to where they had beanbags, waiting for them to sit down first and then settling in himself. The purple clad turtle thought for a moment about where to start, “I suppose the important part for this explanation is that our dad was human and then Baron Draxum used his DNA, mixed with the mystic ooze he made and then used that to mutate us. It was apparently in order to make us super capable fighters and then he wanted to train us to protect the Hidden City from humans. Which of course, then the danger that was foretold was actually his fault. So that sucks for him.”

At this point the Alpha got more into the scientific details, talking with his hands and very excitedly going over the implications of certain aspects. Nyx followed a bit, but there were some things they didn’t quite get, however listening to Donatello talk so excitedly was inspiring in and of itself. A shame they hadn’t brought their sketch book with them, he’d make a great model for their next portrait. 

“...And that’s how the ooze caused everything to change in our DNA structure.” Donnie finished, looking over to the Omega, “Are you still listening?”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry, I really didn’t get all of it but I did learn something.” They grinned, “You have a really easy to listen to voice, did you know that?”

The turtle arched an eyebrow, “It’s not something I hear often, but is that the only thing you learned?”

“I learned some new things about DNA, but mostly that you have a nice voice.” Nyx replied, “So technically I learned two things, which is even better.”

He wanted to say that technically they only learned one thing from him but they seemed so proud of themself that he didn’t have it in him to say anything. Besides they were listening and talking with him when they didn’t have to, which was a win.

“Although if I understood your explanation correctly the way the ooze works, it’s a lot like my paint infusing does. My magic technically changes the makeup of the paint a bit, although not that you can tell by sight.” Nyx explained after a moment, “So technically it was your dad’s DNA and Draxum’s magic that changed you into mutants. Explains why you all ended up naturally gifted at fighting and capable of using mystic weapons.”

Or they could completely prove him wrong in thinking they hadn’t been paying attention.

“You’re infusion works like that? That’s amazing.” He mused, “Could I watch sometime? I’d love to see that firsthand.”

The artist chuckled, “Of course! I’m working on a project right now, maybe you can come by and hang out in the studio while I work”

*********************************

Meanwhile Mikey had turned the TV to Food Network and he had settled in easily, gesturing for Daisy to pick somewhere to get comfortable. Probably better that he not be too forward with the Omega, who seemed just as skittish, if not more so than Raph. If there’s something the Alpha had learned from being around his older brother it was that giving an already skittish Omega more reason to be on edge would end poorly for everyone.

Daisy settled on the couch but did keep a little bit of distance between himself and the Alpha, letting the other know he was at least comfortable but still wasn’t entirely trusting. They had apparently dropped into the middle of a Chopped marathon on the channel, which neither minded as this show was usually good. An easy silence settled between the two of them and for once in his life Mikey managed to keep quiet for longer than ten minutes. If it meant even the chance to spend more time with the Omega next to him, he’d be quieter whenever possible, but hopefully he wouldn’t have to be quiet too much.

“So are the cooking channels y-your usual go to?” Daisy finally spoke up, “O-or is that f-for my benefit?”

He spoke so softly Mikey wouldn’t have heard him if he weren’t so attuned to the Omega’s presence, “Oh no, I love cooking. I could live on this channel but my brothers won’t let me.”

“Really? Maybe we can swap cooking tips sometime.” the lizard replied, “I always end up working in food based businesses… I always feel more comfortable in a kitchen.”

Daisy couldn’t believe the words as they came out of his mouth, tumbling from him without his permission. Dammit, he hated how Michelangelo had managed to get him comfortable enough to talk, usually he was much better at maintaining boundaries than this. It was safer, always safer to keep his distance and to protect himself from the possibility of getting hurt. 

“Well we just restocked our kitchen,” the orange clad turtle grinned, “Maybe some other time this week you can come over and wow me with your culinary skills.”

That smile shouldn’t make his stomach flip like it does and those big baby blue eyes shouldn’t make him want to stay. Maybe he shouldn’t have agreed to hanging out, although something told him Mikey would have been quite persistent. 

“I uh, I don’t know about wowing you…” He started, “B-but I do have some tricks up my sleeve, m-most of it’s for baking and not cooking.”

That was all he had to say and Mikey’s face lit up like a kid in a candy store, blue eyes wide with eagerness and Daisy knew in that moment… he was screwed. He’d have to be careful from this point on, especially because he already had travel set up for a couple of weeks from now. As for Michelangelo, the Alpha was unbelievably excited for the opportunity to convince the lizard mutant to stay here in New York.

***********************************

“You’re messing with me right?” Izzy asked skeptically, “Both of them ran into potential mates at the same time essentially and then freaked out when the omegas disappeared. Then you and Raph had to run around and track them down in the Hidden city, amongst hundreds of thousands of other yokais and mutants?”

Leonardo grinned, “I know it sounds ridiculous, but I am being honest with you cherrybomb. We asked around after both of them, someone recognized the description and we headed that way. Mikey confirmed the scent and we found Daisy first, he actually knew the yokai and led us to them.”

She snorted, “I’ll believe it when I see it, Stripes. Which means you’ll have to actually remember to invite me down when they're both visiting.”

Right, Leo hadn’t had Izzy back down in the lair since the… incident a few days ago and had almost tried to wiggle out of lunch. Except that he didn’t want her to think that she had gotten to him, because he wouldn’t let that happen again.

“Sure, Donnie and Mikey have already made plans to have them back down in the lair. I’ll just let you know when and you can come by.” He replied, “Nyx seems approachable enough but try to be nice to Daisy, he’s pretty skittish and you’re… well you’re kind of loud and abrasive.”

The Alpha growled, although as she had come to expect in the week or so she’d been hanging out with Leo, he didn’t even flinch. It was a little frustrating and also… it was nice, to for once have someone who could keep up and who didn’t get intimidated when she lost her temper a bit. The Beta had proven to be good company and yet, he also drove her completely crazy. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not yet.

“I’ll tone it back as much as possible, but no promises I won’t spook him a little. I’m still an Alpha and a loud individual, as you put it.” She grumbled, “But I will try.”

He grinned, “Great! Unfortunately until Daisy gets used to you, we can’t spar down in the lair unless we’re sure he’s not there. Raph suffers enough from it and I know for a fact Mikey will kill me if his potential mate gets stressed out and scared off.”

Ah there was the catch she was waiting for, not that it was a big deal because sparring wasn’t necessary to hang out. It was fun to spar with Leo because he wasn’t scared to go all out with her, too many of her gym friends treated her like they were going to hurt her despite being an Alpha just like them.

“Guess we’ll have to figure out a different way to enjoy our time then,” she grinned, “Maybe you’ll finally let me kick your shell in mortal kombat.”

Leonardo grinned, “Maybe, or maybe I’ll be the winner. Guess we’ll have to see when it happens.”

***************************

Raph had just finished his personal training and was now relaxing in his room after showering, texting back and forth with Venus. The Alpha had taken to messaging with him whenever she had the free time to do so. It certainly helped with some of his anxiety over… whatever was building up between them, knowing that at least she meant what she said about keeping in contact. He wouldn’t admit it out loud but their text conversations had added some normalcy to his days since she left. 

[Venus]: So, two new Omegas thrown into the mix then. How’s your stress been?

[Venus]: Izzy hasn’t caused any more issues either has she?

[Raphael]: It’s been nice to have more Omegas around honestly. 

[Raphael]: Izzy’s been fine outside of the training incident. She’s a big personality but she’s mostly nice.

[Venus]: Oh. Well that’s good.

[Venus]: My boss is saying my transfer paperwork should come back in a couple days. Looks good for me to get the okay to start packing up to move.

[Venus]: Maybe I’ll get to meet everyone soon.

Raphael smiled, he was at least a good enough read of people to know Venus wasn’t keen on the idea that there was another Alpha outside family hanging out right now. Not that she needed to worry, Izzy wasn’t close to his type and she seemed pretty dead set on being in Leo’s business. 

[Raphael]: You’ll like everyone I’m sure. Nyx is bright and energetic. 

[Raphael]: Daisy is a little like me, kind of skittish but he seems nice enough.

[Venus]: Well if you say so, I believe it.

[Venus]: I’ve gotta get back to grading these papers, but I’ll talk to you tomorrow!

[Raphael]: Have fun with that. Goodnight

He set the phone down, stretching and deciding it was probably a pretty good time to go ahead and get some sleep. That night he dreamed of stuffed bears, the scent of firepit and the big, bright opalescent eyes of a certain shapeshifter.


	9. Hue-pothesis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donnie and Nyx spend some time together, the Omega finding themself much more comfortable in his presence than they would have thought.

Nyx hummed softly as they set up the art studio for Donatello to come up and see, trying to ensure most of their chaotic mess was managed and was at least out of the way. The Omega was pretty good at reigning in their instincts, although hanging out with Daisy had changed that a little already in bringing out more of their protective and nurturing instincts. He was so small and did not have a lot of confidence in himself, which had just made them want to be his friend even more. Ever since they’d started hanging out at the lair a week ago though, their instincts had been acting up again and not because of wanting to protect their friend. Something about the Alpha currently on his way to hang out was causing it, but they were trying not to think too hard about what that would mean. 

The yokai had never given much thought to possible mates or bonding, as most of the people who had attempted to court them wanted them to stay at home and care for their pups. Nyx was an artist and an outgoing individual who would not be forced to become a trophy mate and care for children all by themself. They weren’t against finding a mate, but it would have to be someone who was willing to let them still be who they were after the fact. Which was why they had worked very hard all week not to let Donnie’s scent cloud their mind too much. He smelled a little like a mechanics shop, like oil and welding fire, copper and iron. It was an… enticing smell to Nyx to say the least, maybe because it reminded them so much of their own art studio or their aunt's sculpture workshop. 

Speaking of his scent, they could smell it now as the door downstairs chimed that someone had just come inside, their nose already attuned to picking up the alluring smell. The artist could hear the back and forth between their mother and Donatello before his footsteps headed up the stairs and down the hallway, the scent getting stronger as he got closer. The Omega practically fought to keep themself from being too… well, try hard. They weren’t having Donnie over to impress him, they had invited him over to see how their painting process worked.

A knock on the door startled them from their thoughts, “You can come in, just mind where you walk, the tarp likes to trip people.”

“I remember that much from when we were here the first time.” Donatello chuckled, stepping inside the room, “I’ll be careful, I’d hate to mess up anything the first time you let me in your studio.”

“The good news is you wouldn’t accidentally put your hand in infused paint.” Nyx grinned, “Which would be unpleasant for you. Mostly in an overwhelming emotional state way and then you’d have paint everywhere.”

Currently they had a completely blank canvas, and fresh, uninfused paints so as to allow the scientist see the full process. They typically didn’t let people be in the studio with them while they were painting due to the side effects of the paint on its own. Due to how the infusion worked, the paint on its own and not a proper canvas was magically infused with emotional energy. Touching it while it didn’t have a purpose essentially caused an overload of emotions, in particular whichever emotions they had infused into that color.

“So if I touched the paint on it’s own it would cause me to feel so strongly I couldn’t control myself?” He asked, one eyebrow raised skeptically, “That seems a little… ridiculous.”

“That’s the basics of it.” They said, gesturing to the empty stool next to them for him to sit down on, “It’s a lot more complicated than just that though. It’s a strong effect at first but can continue to cause issues over time as well. My mom accidentally got her hand into a paint I had infused with glee once and she was unbearably happy for like thirty minutes. The rest of the day it didn’t matter what you told her she would react with some amount of joy even if it was terrible.”

He took the offered seat, brow furrowed as he listened to their explanation of how the infusion magic worked. It was like having a specific emotion supercharged for the day, which sounded like a terrible experience. 

“Does the infusion exhaust you emotionally?” He asked, “If you’re infusing it with your own emotions, does it drain you of that emotional capacity for the day?”

“That’s a hard question to answer.” Nyx hummed, “I don’t feel drained, but usually I spend all day painting after infusing so I get the feedback from being around both the paints and the finished project. It allows me to regain some of it back I think.”

They moved to pull one of their chosen colors in front of them, a deep and rich emerald green, opening the bottle and pulling forward one of the empty paint pots on the table.

“I think I can explain better once you’ve seen me do the infusion. You’ll understand some things after seeing it too, so let’s get started and you can keep asking questions as we go.” They proposed, “So let’s get started.”

With that a comfortable silence fell over the room and Nyx started to pour out the paint into the pot until they were certain they had enough. Once they did that they had to decide what emotional feel they wanted out of the painting, opting for something melancholy. So they would need a little bit of sadness mixed in with some of the paints and a little bit of happiness mixed in with others. For this green they would add some joy, picking up the brush they would use for this color and beginning to stir the paint and focusing on the emotion. Donnie tried not to make any noise when he saw the beginning tendrils of soft silvery magic begin to flow down around the brush and into the paint, disappearing into the green.

Once the infusion was done Nyx set that pot aside and reached for the next color and another empty paint pot and continued until they had eight colors, infused and separated. Each one went much the same, a fresh brush was used to ‘stir’ in the magic essentially, the emotions ranging from joy to contentedness and loneliness to sorrow. The yokai looked up at the turtle and offered a tired smile, “So any questions before I actually start painting?”

“Yeah, I have a question.” He said, awestruck, “How do you do that for every painting without exhausting yourself?”

They laughed softly, although he was certain he could tell that they weren’t completely in it.

“I try to pace myself on big paintings like this,” Nyx mumbled, “I try to keep stuff small or minimal, unless I have a commission or I get inspired to do some big project like this. I probably won’t paint anything else this week.”

He nodded, “So you always make sure not to expend too much emotional energy in a week.”

The artist nodded in response, picking up their first brush to start working on the actual painting. They worked slowly, starting with soft blue, grey and white to create a cloudy sky and using a darker grey to make some defining lines in the clouds. As they worked, blending the colors together and creating the shapes, Donnie could feel what they had been talking about before with the feedback from the paints. As they painted he could feel the soft changes between sadness and happiness, the overall melancholy of the two mixing together starting to permeate the room. Once the sky was how they wanted it, Nyx moved the gradient of greens they had chosen for the grassy field in the painting. 

The scientist was lost in the process at this point, watching the artist move deftly as they switched from color to color and blended everything to a cohesive image. Nyx carefully added the soft pink and yellow, creating a flower field over the green meadow thay had painted. There was still a bit of back and forth between the emotions being used, but overall everything just seemed to become more melancholy. As soon as they made the final brushstroke, Donnie let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding in. Nyx still looked a little tired but he could see the feedback from the painting had definitely helped perk them back up a bit. 

“Well you just sat and watched me paint for nearly four hours, how do you feel?” They asked, turning to him, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone sit so still for so long before.”

“Four hours?” He asked breathlessly, “It definitely didn’t feel like it was that long at all.”

Nyx laughed, this time with a little more feeling behind it, “It never feels like it’s that long and trust me I’ve been doing this for years. It needs to dry a bit more before you can see and feel the final product, but there’s this great little drink place down the way. You know if you want to, they serve the best boba tea I’ve ever had.”

“Y-yeah, that sounds great.” He said, stumbling over himself a bit, “Probably a good idea to get out of this room for a bit too. Nothing against you, but being around you and your magic is… playing havoc with my senses.”

Really what he meant was that their smell had at some point permeated the room but the emotional feedback during the painting had dimmed out his instinctual response to it. Which meant now that they were done his Alpha instincts were telling him to try and get them to rest, since it was clear the painting process really took it out of them. Nyx was pleased regardless though and happily led him out of the room and down the hall, a small wave to their mother at the counter as they stepped out of the building. The yokai moved through the streets easily, at one point grabbing his hand to keep him from getting lost in the crowd which had surprised him. It surprised Nyx too, they were certainly affectionate with friends and family but they were still just getting to know him and yet, the gesture felt as normal as breathing in that moment. 

“It’s just a few more buildings down.” They hummed back to him, “They’ve got other drinks too, if boba isn’t your thing. And their coffee is to die for, always a saving grace on long nights.”

Donnie chuckled, finding himself both amused and a bit blown away at where he was, being led down the street by an Omega after being held captive by their painting for four hours. If anyone had asked him about this being a position he would be in, he would have laughed in their faces and told them that was ridiculous. Except here he was, standing in line with Nyx, their hand still gripping his and the yokai telling him about all the drinks on the menu as they waited. By the time they got to the front of the line he hadn’t even decided on what he wanted, Nyx was already talking to the cashier though.

“I’ll have my usual, double boba and extra sweet.” They said, “And my friend here is going to have a taro milk tea with boba, probably on the less sweet side I think. Oh and two creme brulee macarons!”

The cashier nodded, exchanging payment and everything with the yokai and then handing the order back to the other workers. Nyx led Donnie back to a small waiting area, finally letting go of his hand and leaning against the wall. 

“I hope you don’t mind that I ordered for you, but you blanked out on me back there.” They commented, “You seem like you like to try new flavors and taro is a pretty good one to start with. Not overwhelming and it matches your whole color scheme.”

“I’m going to trust your judgement,” He grumbled, “Maybe give a guy the chance to breathe before you expect his brain to function at full capacity.”

Lilting laughter filled the air between them, Nyx grinning, “Half the fun is not letting your brain ruin all the fun you could have though. I think you should stop thinking so hard about everything and just go with the flow. You seemed to manage just fine while I was painting.”

The Alpha felt his cheeks heat slightly at that, “W-well I didn’t want to interrupt your concentration and you know your whole vibe.”

“Sure Mr. Science Nerd, sure.” They replied, “That’s why you were so out of it and even lost track of time.”

Just as he was about to retort, their order number was called the workers placing the two drinks and the small box for the macarons on the counter. Nyx moved to grab the drinks, handing Donnie his and then picking up the small box before motioning to the door. 

“I bet the paints are mostly dry, we can sit and drink down in the kitchen and then go up and check on it.” They suggested, looking up to him, “Think you can manage that much longer without having to play twenty questions about everything?”

He snorted, “You’ll eat those words, I won’t ask a single science or painting related question.”

They laughed again, the lilting sound once more filling the air between them and the Alpha deciding he very much liked the way they laughed. The rest of the walk was spent in mostly companionable silence outside of a bit of small talk to fill the silence. Once they made it back the two of them settled in at the kitchen table and Nyx handed him one of the macarons, grinning like a kid in a candy store. 

“You should be honored, I never share macarons with anyone. Especially not my favorite flavor.” They quipped, eagerly taking a bite out of their own cookie. The way they melted back into their seat was pretty cute too, Donnie chuckled and decided he would go ahead and let them have this one without any snarky remarks. He was pleasantly surprised, the creme brulee was sweet but more than anything tasted a bit like a roasted marshmallow. Matched with the subtle and not overly sweet taro milk tea it was a very satisfying little snack. 

“So do you like it?” Nyx asked, “Or both of them I guess.”

He seemed to think about it, only answering when he could tell they were getting impatient, “Yeah, the drink is good. I do think I like taro and the macaron was good too. You have a terrible sweet tooth if you eat those and also get your drink extra sweetened.”

“I do have a bad sweet tooth, but it’s part of what makes me so sweet.” They claimed, batting their eyelashes at him, “I’m also cranky when I don’t get to have something sweet after a painting, the sugar is good for reinvigorating my emotional state.”

He snorted again, taking another drink and settling into the seat, “I can imagine it helps considering how out of it you seemed afterwards. I was tired and all I did was watch.”

“Next time I’ll invite you to watch when I’m doing a normal painting then.” Nyx retorted, “That way you can enjoy the process without the emotional feedback.”

He almost, almost, choked on his drink but managed to keep it together, “Oh so you’re already planning on inviting me over again then?”

This time Nyx choked on their drink, cheeks flushing a darker aquamarine than their cheeks normally were. Shit they should have thought about that sentence better before saying it out loud. 

“W-well, you weren’t terrible company, so if you wanted to come by again sometime,” They started, “I wouldn’t be… opposed to it.”

“I would like that, I think.” He grinned, “Maybe next time I’ll pay for the drinks.”

The two bantered back and forth for a while more, the painting upstairs almost forgotten about, although they would get to looking at eventually. Here and now in this moment, the shared company was enough to keep their minds on each other and not what they had originally been up to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is a more focused one, as is the next one and then after that... some shenanigans~


	10. Midnight Munchies and Mishaps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy and Mikey spend some more quality time together in the kitchen. Daisy finds himself becoming more comfortable with where he is and Mikey finds himself falling a little harder.

Daisy sighed to himself, once more making his way through the sewers and down to the lair. It had been nearly a week and half since the first time he’d been down here and for once he found himself eager to hang out with people. Mikey was hard not to like and his brothers were all likeable enough in their own ways, it didn’t help that Nyx was dragging him down whether he wanted to or not sometimes. His yokai friend had taken to the turtles and company quickly, always eager for an excuse to go visit. He was currently headed down for another round of cooking and baking with the youngest brother, which had been quite fun the last couple of times he’d been down.

The walk to the lair was quick at this point, he’d done it enough on his own the last few days he almost didn’t have to think about it. It was however abnormally quiet when he got there, making him wonder where everyone was. Daisy shrugged it off, it wouldn’t be that weird for everyone to be out or to be off in their room, so he wouldn’t think about it. He made his way to the kitchen to set down the bags of ingredients he had brought with him and to go ahead and get settled in while he waited for Mikey. While Daisy was busy getting settled into the kitchen, Mikey had just gotten back to the lair and like the sap that he had realized he was, had picked up flowers for tonight. 

He kind of hoped the gesture would help Daisy feel more… wanted here, that it would be a small way to convince him that he was cared for here. Of course it could also go differently, but he was optimistic it wouldn’t. Speaking of the Omega in question, he could smell Daisy’s scent coming from the kitchen and he grinned, because how opportune was it that he’d get the chance to properly surprise him. The Alpha snuck into the kitchen, watching as Daisy sorted and placed ingredients onto the counter with care, careful not to disrupt his focus. 

Not as loudly as he might have with his brothers, he spoke once he was standing behind the lizard mutant, “These are for you-”

What happened next couldn’t have been predicted by the poor turtle and it was something Daisy was going to feel terrible about forever. As he had started to talk it had set off one of the Omega’s self defense mechanisms, in which his tail slapped out at whatever had startled him. While typically his tail had been a way for people to harass him, Daisy had turned it into an automatic way to defend himself and that didn’t always end well. Once he realized what had happened, the flowers laying on the ground now and Mikey looking both concerned and surprised, the lizard felt heat spread across his face. 

“I… I am so sorry,” He squeaked, tail wrapping back around his wrist, “It h-has a mind of it’s own sometimes… especially when I get startled.”

The flowers were so beautiful and now they were on the floor, some of the petals scattered around them. This was why he never stayed anywhere, people didn’t have the patience to deal with his issues and he always ended up ruining everything with his coping and defense mechanisms. Just as the feelings and embarrassment started to feel overwhelming Mikey’s scent engulfed the kitchen, thick with comfort and concern but no frustration or irritation. While Mikey didn’t get any closer, he did keep his voice even and at a lower octave still.

“Hey, it’s okay. I probably shouldn't have snuck up on someone I know has issues with anxiety.” the terrapin grinned, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, “You’d think I would have learned my lesson after Raph knocked me across the room for that once.”

Unbelievable how sweet the Alpha was, this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened while they were hanging out and Mikey was always nice about it and never seemed to get that upset. Maybe it was that Raph had similar issues or maybe it was just that Michelangelo seemed to be more empathetic than other alphas Daisy had met. Which is probably why he hadn’t just disappeared out of shame and fear just yet. 

“Daisy?” Mikey asked, pulling the other mutant from his thoughts, “I’m not upset and it’s okay. I think we could even salvage some of these flowers.”

“I would… I would like that.” he replied softly, “Thank you. Just for you know, being so patient.”

The two squatted down to see which of the flowers could be saved, deciding eventually that about half of the bouquet was still good for keeping. Mikey pulled down a vase, filling it with water before taking the flowers from Daisy and setting them inside the glass. It wasn’t perfect but it was nice that the whole situation hadn’t been completely unfixable. Which made Daisy think, was it possible that someone could be in his life and not be run off by his weird and anxiety driven tendencies? No one had ever really tried before, even when he’d been human there hadn’t been a lot of people he felt he could rely on. Between being a foster kid and being labeled a troubled child without anyone actually talking to them about what was going on, he had gotten used to only relying on himself.

It almost felt too good to be true that Mikey and his brothers, Nyx, Izzy, April and Sunita were all so understanding. Nyx had been helpful and kind since day one, getting people to leave him alone and offering him a quiet space away from everything when he needed it. April and Izzy were boisterous people but they meant well and Sunita was very kind and was a very good listener. The turtles were all very kind, Raph understood better than most about his issues and the rest of the brothers had an understanding from that as well. By this point in one of his stops he was always finding that people wanted him gone, but even his current boss seemed upset over the idea that the mutant planned to be on his way in a week or two. Could he still do it, leave when everyone had been so kind and welcoming, when they wanted him to stay?

Mikey had been cleaning up the rest of the flower mess while Daisy was sorting through his thoughts, luckily he came back to the present just in time not to be caught off guard again. He smiled, albeit a little shyly, “I uh, brought the stuff for lemon bars and orange loaf with glaze. I thought since we did cookies and cake last time, something a little more fun and complicated would be nice.”

The orange clad turtle nodded, “Sounds good to me, but you are the better baker between us so I’ll follow your lead on this.”

With that Daisy gave him some directions, the two of them getting started on the lemon bars first with Mikey working on the crust and his companion working on the lemon mixture. There was some idle chatter back and forth as the two of them worked, but mostly it was companionable silence accompanied by the sounds of the kitchen. Once Mikey had the crust in to bake before the filling got added, he started to clean up what they wouldn’t need for the next recipe, wiped down counters and cleaned up dirty dishes. After a few minutes he pulled the crust back out and Daisy poured in the lemon filling, ensuring it was an even layer before he put the pan back into the oven and set the timer. Another round of cleaning and then Daisy was pulling out all the ingredients for the bread, frowning as he read the list before looking at everything spread out across the counter. 

“Something wrong?” Mikey asked, eyeing the list over Daisy’s shoulder, “We missing something or short on anything?”

The lizard sighed, “No, not missing anything but I did somehow end up with flavored yogurt over plain yogurt and I’m not sure how that’s going to change the flavor of the bread.”

“I guess we’ll have to find out,” the turtle replied, picking up said yogurt, “This one is just pineapple flavored so I don’t think it’ll hurt anything. I’m down for a little bit of a baking adventure if you are?”

Daisy laughed, a sound Mikey had only gotten to hear a couple of other times, “Well pineapple is better than some of the other flavors I could have grabbed in my delirium I suppose. If you’re up for taking a chance on it I’m feeling a little adventurous today.”

Mikey grinned, waiting on his instructions before the two of them got back into the swing of things. It was probably the quietest he’d ever managed to be, these small moments with the Omega and it was nice for once to not feel the need to fill the silence with talking. WIth his brothers, silence often meant someone was upset or someone was hurting and he had, from a young age, picked up on that and ended up being the person to fill any sort of quiet with noise. It was the best way for him to try and let others know he was there for them. With Daisy there wasn’t the need for words or meaningless noise, it was comfortable and calm. 

Daisy of course hadn’t noticed the Alpha watching him and was currently whipping their glaze together and was concentrating so hard his tongue was sticking out between his lips just a bit. The terrapin finally broke his gaze, pouring the bread batter into the pans, pulling the lemon bars from the oven and resetting the timer and then placing the loaf pans onto the rack. By the time he was done, the skink lizard had placed the glaze off to the side and was once again cleaning up the counter and dishes they had used for the preparation. If his ears weren’t mistaken the other mutant was also humming as he worked, not that he could make out the melody that well. 

“So what are we going to do while we wait for the bread to be done?” He asked, leaning against the counter, “We could watch a show, have some dinner, uh… skateboard?”

“I might not recommend skateboarding,” Daisy grinned, “But I could go for an episode or two of a show. I’ll set an alarm on my phone too, just to be sure we don’t burn anything.”

The two walked to the living room, Daisy grabbing something to drink while Mikey went ahead and settled onto the couch and got the channel set up. The lizard wasn’t too far behind, who had loosened up enough tonight that he settled in right next to the Alpha. Michelangelo waited for a moment before realizing that this was just where the smaller mutant was going to settle and then relaxed against the couch. They watched two episodes of some how it’s made show, not that the turtle noticed as he was too focused on the smaller mutant next to him, whose rose milk and raspberry sweet scent was almost all encompassing. Mikey couldn’t even really smell the bread that was surely getting close to done, only the timer going off on Daisy’s phone reminding him that they still had to go check on that. 

The lizard in question had just about fallen asleep where he was sitting, blearily wiping at his eyes and turning off the timer. Just as he was about to get up, Mikey placed a hand on his arm, “I’ll go get it out of the oven, you look too comfortable to be getting up and moving.”

Daisy didn’t even try to argue, happy enough to cuddle back into the couch and close his eyes again. Not that he didn’t get sleep, but just like it was hard to find a place he wanted to stay, sleeping was hard when you didn’t feel completely comfortable in a place. The Alpha couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride in the fact that Daisy had gone from startled earlier to feeling safe enough to fall asleep right next to him. He’d seen a little bit of Daisy getting more comfortable with him over the last week and a half, but to know that the Omega seemed to be properly adjusting caused a bloom of warmth and affection in his chest. He turned to the kitchen to retrieve the loaves from the oven, carefully getting them out of the pans and onto the cooling rack, finding the toothpicks so he could poke a few holes in the top of each loaf. Daisy had said the glaze went on right after that so he went ahead and did that as well, looking pleased with his work and leaving the kitchen to let those cool off properly. 

Daisy was still napping, the tv running as background noise and softly lighting the living room. Mikey wanted to settle next to him again, but didn’t want to risk waking him up or scaring him off and instead moved to sit in the sofa chair. As he moved past the napping lizard he was stopped, looking down to find the skink’s tail wrapped gently around his ankle. He looked up to find the smaller mutant still asleep, although he remembered what he had said about his tail earlier, that it sometimes had a mind of its own. Mikey looked from the tail around his ankle to the empty space next to Daisy and guessed he’d be sitting there again anyway. As carefully as possible he sat back down, holding his breath when he thought he’d woken the Omega up only to have the lizard snuggle into his side. He had to focus on the show to keep himself from pushing his luck any further tonight, having Daisy snuggled against him was causing his instincts to scream at him.

A few more episodes of the same show they had been watching before played and he had to wonder how much longer the two of them could stay like this. He knew Raph and Leo would be back from patrol soon and who knew when Donnie would get back. No sooner had he thought about that did he feel the mutant next to him start to move again, yawning and rubbing his eyes as he finally woke up from his nap.

“How long was I out?” Daisy mumbled sleepily, “I didn’t miss anything good did I?”

Mikey laughed, “About an hour I think. You didn’t miss much, I finished the orange loaves but I haven’t touched anything yet.”

The skink mutant sat up and stretched his arms over his head, letting out a small sigh as his shoulders popped and then shook off the rest of the sleepiness. He was trying not to think too hard about the fact that he’d slept so well next to the very person he was trying not to get too attached to. Or what that might mean. 

“Well I’m up now and everything should be cooled off enough to taste test.” Daisy mused, “If you want to.”

He laughed as the Alpha practically picked him up off the couch and dragged him into the kitchen. The nice thing about cooking with Mikey was that he was always eager to taste test and enjoy what they’d made together. It reminded him of when he’d been taken in by a couple of older yokai, who had taken him in just after his mutation and who had enjoyed his added presence in their kitchen.

“The bread and bars aren’t going anywhere,” he giggled, finding a knife to cut the baked goods with, “We also still have time before everyone else gets back and demolishes them.”

The last few times they had baked together everything they had made was eaten quickly and was well praised, the turtles and their friends appreciated good food.

“Exactly and I want more than just one or two pieces of both of these,” the Alpha pouted, “Everything we make tastes good but I never get to have as much as everyone else does.”

The lizard grinned, “Alright well, we’ll taste test and then we’ll set some aside so you can have it all to yourself for later. How does that sound?”

“Music to my stomach,” Mikey nodded, “Do you want to put some extra aside for yourself?”

Daisy shook his head, “No, I’ll just be happy to see everyone else enjoying what we made. I’ll be good with just what we get to eat right now.”

The two of them cut into the baked goods, enjoying the product of their hard work and each other's company. Mikey just happy to have gotten to spend more time with the smaller mutant and Daisy wondering if maybe, just maybe he can stop running away from what he wants.


	11. Back in the Big City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Venus finally makes it back in town. The gang all gets together finally!

“That’s the last of the stuff from the car V,” Sunita called from the doorway, holding the door open for her mate, “Are you sure you don’t want us to stick around and help you unpack?”

April nodded, setting the box she’d just brought in down, “Yeah, we can order take out and all take turns struggling to put your furniture together. It’ll be fun and take way less time than if you have to do it by yourself.”

The shifter shook his head, “I appreciate the thought, really, but I am ready to get the necessities out and then relax for a moment without anyone else around. I love you, April, you know this. I need some time to recharge before tomorrow.”

Venus would be heading down to the lair tomorrow afternoon to re-scent Raph’s plushies and have him do the same. Not to mention Venus would finally get to meet Daisy and Nyx, plus get the chance to get to know Izzy better. He had met Izzy before leaving, but the two had never had much time to talk and Venus had been on pins and needles knowing that the other Alpha had been around the lair while he was gone.

“Alright, alright,” the new yorker said, “I will leave you be for the evening then, but don’t think Sunita and I won’t drag you out to brunch on sunday. It’s tradition.”

With that April and Sunita headed out, leaving Venus to get settled into his new apartment. It was a bit smaller than his last one, partially due to the fact that housing in New York was way more expensive than it had been back in the south where that had been living before. The other reason for the small apartment was that he likely wouldn’t be spending much time up here except to sleep and eat, maybe grade papers, because he was planning on spending as much time down in the lair as he could. For now though, he needed to get the necessities out for the evening and make sure his mattress was at least somewhere comfortable so that he could get to sleep. He could worry about everything else tomorrow.

*****************************

The shapeshifter’s day had gone by relatively quickly once he’d gotten into work, getting familiar with the new school campus and getting to know the teachers in the department he would be working in. Venus found it easy to get along with the new Professors and the students he’d be helping with, not to mention the college campus was only a ten minute walk from his apartment, so he could just go back to his place for lunches instead of being tempted to eat out. Now that he was done for the day, he was currently making the short walk back to his building and making a mental list of all the things he needed to grab before heading down to the lair. Venus absolutely had to remember to grab the dragon plushie Raph had given him and the weird southern sodas he’d picked up so that everyone could try them.

Once he made it up to the apartment he packed everything he needed to take with him into his backpack, changed into something a little more comfortable than what he had worn for work, then headed out. It was easy enough to remember how to get down to the lair, despite not having been down there for a little over two weeks and it wasn’t long before Venus was stepping through the door. He had to not entirely reel back from the amount of new scents, not that they were unpleasant but it was a lot of new scents that he wasn’t at all used to. Underneath all the new scents was that very familiar and very sweet chocolatey scent belonging to the Omega he was here to see. He wanted to see everyone else, of course, but he was a shifter with priorities. And the top of the list was the large Omega clad in red. 

Venus followed the scent, only seeing Izzy and Leo on his way through the lair towards Raph, offering a small wave to the two of them before moving on. It doesn’t take that long to find the Omega, he’s back in the weight room busy with his personal workout routine and Venus grins, leaning against the wall to watch for a moment.

“Gotta say big guy, this is a nice view to come down to,” the shifter grinned, “I’ll take this as the warm welcome I was hoping for.”

It was a good thing Raph hadn’t been actually using any of the equipment with the way he startled and jumped, turning around to see who was there. The Omega relaxed just a bit as he realized who it was talking to him, the scent of smoky cherry wood fire filling his senses. Having the stuffed bear had been nice, but it was much nicer to have the scent in person. He was still nervous about getting any more attached, but he would be lying if he said after all their hangouts and text conversations that he wasn’t interested in Venus.

He cleared his throat, “Venus, I thought you were going to be by later tonight. I, uh, would have cleaned up before you got here.”

The shifter chuckled, “There’s no need for all that, you know I’ve said before that nothing about your scent ever bothers me. I’m just glad to get to see you in person again Big Red.”

The red clad terrapin rubbed his neck sheepishly, “Give me a chance to shower really quick and we can head up to my room. Izzy and Leo are using the training area today, Donnie and Mikey should be on their way back to get ready for patrol tonight.” 

Venus nodded, “Okay, okay, I’ll wait out in the living room for you.”

He stepped out of the weight room and went to the living room like he said, finding a place to sit down while he waited on Raph to be ready. He looked down at his phone, checking through his messages and emails, marking certain messages to be looked at later. It didn’t take too long for Raphael to get showered, motioning to Venus from upstairs.

“It’s clear to come up now V,” the Omega called to him, “You remember which one is mine right?”

The shifter chuckled, he did remember where the room was, but he didn’t feel the need to say that out loud and instead just moved up to the second floor to meet up with the turtle. The Omega waited for him at the door, finally moving into the room after Venus was inside, “Don’t worry about the partial nest, I was having a… moment the other day, but Daisy helped me out. It’s been nice having more Omegas around.”

“I can imagine, if it’s helping with the anxiety that’s definitely a good thing.” Venus grinned, “And I’m eager to get to meet everyone, I saw Izzy and Leo on my way in. They seem to be, uh getting along.”

Raphael snorted, “That’s one way to put it, I kind of wish they would just kiss and get past this weird back and forth they’ve had going on since she started hanging out.”

“I thought they were kind of awkward before I left, has it gotten worse?” the shifter asked, one eyebrow raised. While Izzy had made Venus uncomfortable, it wasn’t like the other Alpha was a bad person but he didn’t like the idea of another Alpha being in the vicinity of his possible mate. It was good to know that there wasn’t ever really reason to worry, if Izzy and Leo were as into each other as it sounded like they were.

“I’m not sure worse is the right word,” the turtle sighed, “but everything is definitely getting more tense between the two of them. Anyone with eyes could see the two of them have chemistry. Leo dances around the subject and Izzy flirts, but it’s never up front.”

Venus snorted, “Ridiculous, here’s hoping they get over it sooner rather than later.”

The two of them settled in, trading plushes to re-scent and snuggling together while catching up on everything they couldn’t talk about over text messages. The rest of the night was theirs, the two spending it in calm conversation and quiet companionship.

******************

The lair was currently being completely rearranged for the very full house it was going to be accommodating that evening. With Venus back in town, they would finally have everyone all together and the turtles wanted to make sure that everyone being in the same room went over well. Izzy already spooked Daisy, Nyx was pretty amiable with everyone and Daisy was less jumpy then when they first met him but the poor Omega still spooked too easily. April and Sunita had offered to help out but had already planned for dinner with Sunita’s family and didn’t want to back out last second. Which left the four brothers with the task of getting the place nice and cleaned up, along with making sure they had the space to have everyone down at the same time comfortably. Mikey insisted on having food and drinks, which he was busy working on while the other three handled making the place look presentable. 

While the four of them were busy with that, their guests were actually bumping into one another on the way down. Nyx and Daisy were on their way together, Venus and Izzy had managed to run into one another on the street, which led to the current moment where all four had run into each other down in the sewer intersection. 

“Hey Nyx. Hey Daisy.” the blonde grinned, gesturing to the Alpha next to her, “This is Venus, Venus meet Nyx and Daisy.” 

The shifter nodded, “Nice to meet both of you, I’ve heard great things from Raphael.”

Daisy hid behind Nyx, ducking his head down and mumbling something that sounded like ‘Hello’ and the yokai chuckled.

“Sorry about him, he just takes some time to warm up to people,” they grinned, “It is nice to meet you, we’ve heard good stuff about you from the guys too. Let’s save the rest of our get to know each other for the lair though, yeah? That way no one else misses out on anything.”

The two Alphas nodded and Nyx started down the way towards the lair, Daisy wrapping his arms around the other Omega’s and cautiously eyeing the other two. He had met Izzy already but she was intimidating and Venus was an unknown to him, so he stuck by Nyx for the whole walk there. The walk to the lair didn’t take too long, Venus opened the door for the other three, walking in after them.

“Hey nerds we made it here and you’ll never guess who we ran into on the way here.” Izzy said loudly, making their presence known to the turtles, “Place looks good by the way.”

There was some crashing from the living room as Leo and Donnie came around the corner, both trying to push the other out of the way. The blue clad turtle grinned, “Well look who finally made it down here, great to see everyone. Even you, Izzy.”

Before the Alpha could retort, Nyx spoke up, “Yes, it is great to see everyone and that means no pushing buttons for at least this evening Leon. So you two had better play nice.”

Izzy grumbled, “I’ll play nice when his existence doesn’t push my buttons.”

Leo snorted, “Well maybe you shouldn’t make it so easy cherry bomb.”

The Alpha snarled and moved forward reaching out to grab Leonardo, while Leo waited with a smirk on his face to see what she would do next. The yokai moved between the two and frowned, “I said everyone had better play nice. So play nice or I’ll take myself and Daisy home, which will make two of your brothers upset and means this little get together has to get rescheduled.”

Both the blonde and the blue clad terrapin had the decency to look sheepish about their little back and forth, Venus and Donnie both chuckled at Nyx’s ability to deal with the whole situation. Daisy had moved off to the kitchen when he realized what was happening, helping Mikey with finishing up the refreshments.

“Well it’s a good thing someone around here gets you two to chill out,” the shifter mused, “I like you already Nyx.”

The yokai smiled, “I aim to please.”

******************************

Everyone settled down into the living room, with Mikey’s impressive snack spread and drinks were keeping everyone sated. Izzy and Leo had been seated across from one another, Daisy sat in between Mikey and Nyx with Donatello on the other side of the yokai, while Venus and Raph had situated themselves on the floor. With introductions out of the way and a bit of small talk, the conversation turned to plans the group should make now that everyone was in the city together. 

“Maybe we should start small?” Daisy suggested, “We could just do something here in the lair first.”

Leo hummed, “Could be fun, we do have a sweet set up for a great movie night. You know, since you’re looking for something nice and safe.”

Venus and Nyx both nodded, the latter speaking up, “That would be fun, but what kind of movie? I’m partial to horror or sci-fi personally.”

“I like horror too,” Izzy agreed, “I’m also down for action flicks.”

“Sounds like horror is already a good option,” Venus added, “I like a good spooky movie myself.”

Donnie hummed, “I think that’s at least half of us who would be interested in something scary. I know Mikey is pretty partial to scary movies, even if he spooks easy.”

“So then we stick with a horror film, unless anyone has any particular complaints?” Nyx asked, looking around the room, “Sound good?”

While some of them seemed a little hesitant, namely Raph and Daisy, everyone agreed to watching something scary for their movie night. The group decided they would spend the week getting ready and the movie night proper would be the following weekend. They split off into pairs, each pair would have to get something for the movie night. Raph and Venus ended up in charge of ensuring enough blankets and cushions, Daisy and Mikey were in charge of food, Leo and Izzy were in charge of picking out the movie, while Donnie and Nyx would make sure the technical side was taken care of. The rest of the night went by too quickly, the turtle’s guests leaving sooner than they realized, although everyone was still very excited at the prospect of their next proper hangout.


	12. Movie Mayhem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Movie night commences, Leo gets called out on the floor for toeing the line with Izzy, late night snacks get made to help everyone calm down before sleeping.

The lair was already abuzz as everyone got things ready for movie night, or at least half of the occupants were getting things ready. Rapael and Venus had already gotten the seating setup figured out, ensuring there were plenty of blankets and pillows for everyone. Meanwhile, since Izzy and Leo only had to pick up the movie, the two were having a ‘friendly’ arm wrestling competition. Raph had been worried about it but Venus told him she would handle it if they got out of hand, although she kind of wished those two would just get a room and actually deal with the tension. While the Beta’s scent was harder to read, the Alpha’s was loud and clear especially to the shifter and it said that Izzy wanted to take a bite of the blue clad turtle.

In the kitchen Daisy and Mikey were finishing up the snack spread for the evening, the two mutants working in relative silence outside of the quiet humming from the terrapin. The skink mutant had seemed pretty lost in thought that day, even when they had gone shopping for supplies earlier but he hadn’t divulged what was on his mind. Michelangelo finally decided he wouldn’t worry too much about it, but his instincts told him he should push until the Omega answered him. For now he just enjoyed the moment. Donnie and Nyx were busy making sure everything was connected correctly for the projector, the yokai sitting on the mutant’s shoulders so they could see and reach the piece of tech. The purple clad terrapin was explaining how to connect everything, trying very hard not to be distracted by the strong and thick thighs currently on either side of his head. Not that Nyx was making that easy with the wiggling they kept having to do to maneuver around. 

The projector was set up and ready before the snacks were, which meant everyone had free hands to bring everything from the kitchen and out to the living room. Venus settled on the floor in front of Raph’s bean bag, the large Omega dettling in behind her easily and laying his head on top of hers gently. Donnie and Nyx were already settled on the love seat, discussing back and forth what made a good horror movie scary. Izzy shoved Leo off the couch, so that Daisy and Mikey could sit up there, not that it kept the Beta from bothering her by settling on the floor in between her legs.

“Okay, now that we’re all settled in,” Venus started, “Let’s go over movie manners, because I do not want to have to pause the movie to tell people off. It’ll ruin the scary atmosphere too.”

Leo nodded, pointing over to his twin and the oni in the room “I have to agree, especially considering those two have already been debating movie trivia all afternoon. I do not want to have to listen to that over the movie.”

“We will do our best not to interrupt the movie,” Nyx chuckled, putting their hands up in surrender, “Feel free to banish us to the kitchen if we get too loud.”

The purple clad turtle frowned, but nodded in agreement, “I suppose if we are interrupting the movie, then we could be removed from the room.”

With the agreement to be quiet during the movie and everyone settled into their seats, Donnie finally started up the projector, the movie’s title appearing across the screen. ‘The Thing’, a classic horror movie from 1982, one Izzy had said still gave her the creeps even today. They barely got twenty minutes into the movie before Daisy and Raph were hiding their faces in the shoulders of their respective Alpha’s, even Leo had leaned back into Izzy a bit. Mikey was freaking out, but his instincts were stronger and kept him from spooking too much in order to help the small Omega huddled against his side feel better. Meanwhile the tech geek and the artist were already back to quiet debate over the probability of the situation and if that factored into it being as scary as it was. Izzy could only handle another ten minutes of hearing the two of them whisper back and forth about the probability and likelihood of what was happening before she turned to tell them off.

“Would you two shut up or get out?” the Alpha half whispered, placing a comforting hand on Leo’s shoulder when she made him jump because of it. She might have felt awkward over it, if she had the time to think about why she’d automatically reacted but instead she focused on the current issue.

Donatello looked like he might argue with her, but Nyx placed a hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

“Sorry, we will see ourselves into the kitchen.” the yokai whispered back, already pulling the terrapin with them before he could say anything about it. With the two of them gone, it didn’t take long for the atmosphere of the movie to come back, setting everyone back on edge once more. Raph had moved from just having his head buried against Venus’ shoulder to wrapping his arms around her as if it would keep the jump scares from spooking him as bad. The youngest turtle was keeping his cool but poor Daisy had all but climbed into his lap as each new scary moment in the movie got to him. Not that the Alpha was complaining, hard to be upset when the incredibly cute Omega he wanted was almost literally climbing all over him. Leonardo, on the other hand, was grateful to be scared because it gave him a reason not to think about the fact that Izzy had readily taken to trying to comfort him and how that had felt… really nice.

While they couldn’t see the movie as well from the kitchen table, Donnie and Nyx continued to talk about the science and theory behind the scary happenings. 

“I mean, between what we know of the mystic races and mutants, I don’t think aliens are too far a stretch.” The oni mused, “Not to mention that scientist’s are pretty certain there are at least microscopic life forms out there somewhere.”

“Sure, but microscopic life forms probably aren’t going to cause some of the things we’re seeing.” Donnie argued, “Besides this thing seems to be very intelligent, not something they’ve proved is out there just yet. Not to mention the capability to take over a person’s body like that? I doubt we’ll ever see something like that.”

Nyx rolled their eyes, but their lips were still turned up at the corners, “And that makes it less scary? I think the fact that it’s so unlikely makes it a little more horrifying, especially if you ever found yourself in this situation.”

“If the possibility is as low as I’m sure it is, I’m not worried about it.” the purple clad terrapin said, “You’re not actually scared are you?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” they teased, winking at him, “It’s a scary concept, but I don’t think I’d call the movie itself scary.”

He laughed, “I think I can agree to that at least.”

Their conversation continued in the kitchen, while the other six finished up the movie. At this point Daisy had actually climbed into Mikey’s lap, Raph had picked Venus up and placed her in his lap to hide behind, and Leo was pressed back against Izzy’s legs and was ignoring the comforting touch of her hands on his shell. By the time the movie is over, even Mikey is hiding his face behind one of his hands, Izzy and Venus aren’t as freaked out but clearly a little unsettled. As the credits rolled, Venus cooed to the Omega wrapped around her, using her scent and vocals to let him know he was okay and that there wasn’t anything else scary on the screen. The Alpha’s efforts were enough to help everyone else in the room relax a bit as well, Leo finally pushing himself up off the floor and away from Izzy. The Beta ignored the almost hurt look on her face, which was easy since she schooled her face back into it’s usual irritated scowl.

Daisy untangled himself from Mikey, very much trying to ignore the heat crawling across his cheeks and down his neck. He cleared his throat, “I am not going to be able to even think about sleeping until I get my mind off the movie.”

“I second that.” Raph mumbled, “Probably sleep with the lights on too.”

Venus shook her head, “You know big guy, you could always just ask someone to stay with you. And don’t give me that look, it could be one of your brothers.”

The room broke out into laughter at that, between the flustered look on Raphael’s face and the rebuttal from the shifter before he even said anything. Just like that the still slightly tense atmosphere fell, allowing everyone to relax a bit. 

“Well if we’re not going to sleep yet, I could whip up a late night snack?” the skink mutant offered, “Cooking always helps me feel better and everyone else gets to have something nice too.”

Surprisingly, Izzy agreed, “I could definitely go for something to eat, food always helps me when I’m stressed.”

“Well it’s a wonder you look like you do if that’s true,” Leo started, “Because you always look stressed Cherrybomb.”

The alpha growled at him, which would have led to a fight if Mikey hadn’t placed himself in between the two of them.

“No fighting! Only snacks and nice, friendly banter.” the box turtle declared, “And we all go to the kitchen, besides I bet Donald and Nyx would like the company too.”

The blonde grumbled but put up her hands in surrender, following The two Omegas and Venus into the kitchen. Michelangelo looked over to his brother and shook his head disapprovingly. 

“What? Maybe she shouldn’t be so easy to rile up.” He said, “She’s not innocent in this either.”

“No, but she only does it as much as you do. If you would just sit down and talk without turning it into a competition or argument, maybe you’d see what the rest of us can.” his younger brother said calmly, “Or you two could just kiss and get it over with.”

Leo opened his mouth to argue, but choked on his words at his brother’s last statement. Was it that obvious to everyone? He’d already had Donnie talk to him twice about fighting his instincts as hard as he was. Despite being a Beta, he still had mating urges, and even if he never admitted it Izzy was an ideal partner for him. She didn’t put up with his nonsense and she certainly didn’t just let him do as he pleased, not to mention she could keep up with him as far as energy went too.

“I do not want to kiss her.” He half whispered, “She’s just fun to mess with.”

The younger terrapin snorted, “Whatever you need to say to make yourself feel better, but you’re still in denial.”

The orange clad turtle left his brother standing there, thinking about how much he hated that Mikey was right. Son of a bitch.

*************************

Once Mikey was in the kitchen, he and Daisy got to work to make their late night relaxing snacks. Venus and Izzy were leaned up against one of the counters, talking about the possibility of the shapeshifter joining the gym the other Alpha worked for. Raph had joined Nyx and Donnie at the table, where the smaller Omega had immediately started to put off a comforting scent, as they were able to tell the poor guy was still feeling a little stressed from the movie. The yokai also kicked Donatello in the shin when he tried to continue their conversation, because they didn’t want to restress Raph. Leo came trudging in after everyone else was settled, although he was quick to mask the frustration on his face.

“So what are you making Daisy?” Venus asked, “Because I have no idea what it could be just from the ingredients.”

The lizard chuckled, “This is just for dipping. I already had a batch of pretzel bites ready to finish baking, we didn’t need them earlier.”

“Oh damn, pretzel bites sound so good right now,” she nodded, “So is it a cheese dip then?”

“The only cheese dip in the kitchen currently is helping make our snacks.” Nyx quipped from the table, “And I do mean that in like the nicest way Mikey, your jokes are very good but still like, a dad level of cheesy.”

The turtle in question made as over dramatic an offended face as he could, although he couldn’t quite keep the smile from tugging at his lips. Everyone else laughed, even Leo who had been stewing in his thoughts, leaving the feeling in the kitchen warm and comfortable. The yokai smiled, not letting on that they’d been able to tell there was some upset going on, just happy to have been able to help. 

“You’re all terrible.” Daisy hummed, “But I think I’ll be able to sleep now.”

More laughter filled the kitchen and the small group chatted, everything from how the week had been to what movie they should watch the next time they did something like this. Everyone in the room was thinking about what they needed to do personally. Izzy thinking about trying to speak with Leo, Venus working out what she can do to help Raph feel better about wherever their relationship might go, Daisy seriously considering whether or not he needed the train ticket on his nightstand, and Nyx already imagining their next art piece, all purples and greens. The turtles also thinking about their respective opposites, Mikey and Donnie thinking on ways to be more obvious about their intentions without scaring off the Omegas, Raphael wanting to open up to the shifter more, and Leo thinking about why he can’t just be honest with himself about how he feels towards Izzy. 

Despite some of the unease still in the air, the rest of the night was full of laughter, jokes and small talk. All of this was enough to help everyone relax and get to sleep finally, all of them hoping that things could only go uphill from here.

**Author's Note:**

> Oooh footnote and something that will get explored and explained but Venus is genderfluid, so the pronouns will likely change a bit here and there based on how she feels and whats going on in the story.


End file.
